Guilty. I am totally guilty of checking my phone while I’m driving. I think I’m being safe because I’m not actually trying to send a text or read an email or even dial the phone but if my phone chirps to tell me that I have a new message, my first instinct is to grab my phone and check out who is on my screen. Just the name. That’s all I want but in that 3 seconds it takes me to check to see if my bestie has texted to say she’s having problems with her kids diaper rash, I could kill someone.

BOOM!

Just like that.

I learned a thing or two when I visited GM headquarters and proving grounds in Detroit, Michigan for their Chevrolet Safety Event during National Teen Driver Safety Week.

Here are the scary facts about teen driving:

The #1 cause of teen deaths is motor vehicle accidents.

A texting driver is 23 times more likely to crash.

40% of speeding drivers in fatal crashes are 16-24 and 40% of those were drinking and driving.

Teens represent 13% of licensed drivers but account for 24% of road fatalities.

And the scariest fact of all is that if you are a BLUNTmom or are reading BLUNTmoms, it is likely that you have or know a teen driver and have the ability to influence how they drive. I remember back when I first got my license, I was (or at least I thought I was) an excellent driver. I would drive fast, blast the tunes on my single disc CD player, weaving in and out of traffic like I was in the Indy 500. The most distracting thing I had to do was flip down my visor and pick a new CD from the 10 CD sleeve attached to it. My cell phone didn’t get 10 text messages in 20 minutes. I didn’t feel the need to call anyone and chat while I was on my way to pick them up. The truth is, technology has changed all that.

 

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GM and Chevrolet have come up with some pretty awesome ways to help combat some of the distractions or bad habits that can cause accidents. Out at the super secret Milford Proving Grounds test area, I got to experience first hand just how easy it is to give the driver a butt grab to get their attention. It’s a cool new safety feature that shakes the seat under your right or left cheek depending on which painted line on the road you’ve drifted over and after driving a 2015 Chevrolet Tahoe for a week after returning from Detroit, this is by far, my favourite new safety feature, especially on 2 way single late country roads. My husbands favourite safety feature is the side blind zone indicator that lights up a warning light on the side mirror if something is in the blind zone. Great for lazy shoulder checking people.

 

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Then maybe I’m driving along in traffic and I look down to turn up the heat in the vehicle and at that split second the car in front of me stops. Before I even have a chance to react, the Chevy front automatic breaking system kicks in and slams on the breaks, flashes red lights onto the windshield, shakes both my butt cheeks and beeps! That’s nothing short of setting off a firecracker from the steering wheel, there’s no way I’d miss this crash warning system and perhaps give me a heart attack.

 

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Rounding out the amazing safety technology are the impressive automatic parallel or perpendicular park assist, adaptive cruise, which automatically matches the speed of the vehicle in front of you by slowing you down so you don’t have to hit the breaks at all while on the highway and my other favourite, the rear cross traffic alert. It’s happened to me countless times, I’m at the mall and slowly start backing out of a parking spot and some impatient jerk drives across the back end of my vehicle while I’m in reverse. With rear cross traffic alert, the vehicle will let me know that something is coming into my path from one of the sides, even if it’s outside of the view of the camera! Cool, right?

 

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I know if I’d had safety features like these when I was a teen driver, well, lets just say that my insurance would have been a lot cheaper. There was a time when I would shop for a new car and I’d look for all the best bells and whistles like wood grain dash and 6 CD changer but now that I’m a mom with 4 kids in tow, those bells and whistles come in the form of land departure butt shakes and side blind zone indicators.

Thanks Chevrolet for shaking my butt.

*source for teen driving facts are from Parachute Canada (dot) org

Author

Tiffany has more kids than she has patience, more to-do lists than time and a wardrobe of yoga clothes that have never seen a yoga studio. In her spare time (HA) she blogs, runs, parents (double HA) and ponders what she wants to be when THEY grow up! MyDirt.ca - A personal journey to clean up her act.

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