3 Tips To Teach Your Teen About Driving At Night

If you have a teen that’s about ready to start driving, you’ve probably thought a lot about how and when you’ll teach your kid to drive safely. And while you’re likely thinking about how to teach things like parallel parking and getting up to speed on a freeway on-ramp, it’s also important that you teach your teen some of the skills necessary to keep them safe during less than ideal driving times. For most people, the times that are the scariest to be on the road include when the weather’s bad or when it’s dark out, as that’s when it seems easier to get in a car accident. So to help ensure that your teen knows the right precautions to take, here are three tips you should teach your teen about driving at night.

Stay On Top Of Your Headlights

The most important part of your car when you’re driving at night is your headlights. Without properly working and directed headlights, it can be hard or impossible for you to see adequately. Even if you’re driving in a well-lit area, your headlights are vital. According to Driving-Tests.org, make sure you teach your teen to always keep their headlights clean and properly positioned for they can see at night. Also, teach him or her that if they ever have a headlight go out, that they need to replace it as soon as possible, both for their own safety and to be obedient to the law.

Know Where To Look

While seeing the road and your surroundings can be hard in the dark, what can make this even more challenging is if you’re being blinded by the lights of the other cars on the road. Because your eyes are trying to get used to the darkness, the bright lights from other drivers can appear even brighter to you, which can momentarily blind you if you look directly at them. To keep this from happening to your teen, Phil Berg and Anthony Alainz, contributors to Popular Mechanics, recommend teaching your teen how to reduce the glare from lights of drivers behind them as well as how to look down at the white lines on the road when cars are coming toward them in the opposite lane.

Slow Down and Give Others More Space

When it’s dark out, the only part of the road that you can see well are the parts that your lights on shining on. And since you need to be able to see where you’re going, your lights likely won’t reach out too far from the lane in front of you, which can make it harder to see around your car. Because of this, you should teach your teen how to give themselves more time to react if something unexpected happens. To do this, idrivesafely.com advises teaching your teen to slow down and to give other drivers more space when driving at night.

If you’ll soon be teaching your teen to drive, consider using the tips mentioned above to help them know how to stay safe when driving around at night.