Young adults don’t learn to drive at 16. They are learning for 16 years by the behaviour we display whilst we drive.
What are you doing in the car whilst driving? Do you eat, drink, answer your emails, sms on the phone? Do you have loud music on so that you ‘can’t hear them talking? Are you patient? Do you follow the road rules?
We have all been driven to our wits ends with crying and non-stop car chatter, so how do you keep them happy and safe in the car?
Books with hard covers and hand held video games can be projectile objects in the event of emergency braking and can severely injure a child.
- When feeding children in cars avoid hard lunch boxes – instead wrap soft food in baking paper and pack in brown paper bags
- Don’t use poppers – the straw can blind a child with an emergency brake. Same goes with lollipops
- Water bottles should be soft – hard ones are potential projectile objects
- All books and toys should be soft and preferably made of cloth
- Talk to children about road rules and why you do from day one. Why are you waiting at the red arrow, braking, stopping and who do you give way to at a roundabout
“Safe driving is all about risk management. Reduce he risks by driving to the road rules; keep a check on your driving by scanning ahead and using your mirrors. Keep the cabin free of hard objects, keep your handbag on the floor and turn off the mobile phone – no phone call or sms is more important than the safety of your family” says Eleni Mitakos, Managing Director of Galmatic.
Eleni Mitakos is from Galmatic. Galmatic is an all Australian company, with a strong passion for empowering women to take the driver’s seat when it comes to cars, driving and the road safety of their family and friends. For more details on Galmatic visit www.galmatic.com
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