With a national summit on distracted drivers set for this week, studies due today from the journal Pediatrics show that parents can have a huge effect on how effective — or distracted — their teen drivers become.

Conducted by Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, PA and given funding by State Farm Insurance Co., the studies show that parents who set specific driving boundaries and urge caution in their kids are a lot more likely to have kids who survive into adulthood. Teens whose parents are actively involved in this way reduce their teens’ drinking while driving risk by 70 per cent, their risk of speeding by 50 per cent, and their risk of talking on a cell phone while driving by 30 per cent.

Also, kids who don’t have a car but have to ask to borrow keys to a family car are 50 per cent less likely to be involved in a car accident.

Sadly, many parents today feel they should be more friends with their kids than parents or mentors, and try to enable and empower them beyond sensible boundaries. As these statistics show, that may not help kids grow up, but instead can pave the way for tragedy.

In America, car accidents are the leading cause of death for persons 16-20 years old. Last year alone, 4,400 American teens died in car wrecks, and 250,000 teens were injured. Drinking, drugs, speeding and extra passengers all increase the risk of such deaths and injuries significantly.

To avoid having their children become a statistic, parents are encouraged to set rules and limits as a means of helping their kids, not punishing them. Parents also should take an active role in their teens’ driver’s education beyond formalized teaching.

Such rules and guidance can include curfews, insistence that teen drivers not use cell phones, and limiting or prohibiting passengers with a teen driver for his or her first months of driving. In such ways, new and unskilled teen drivers can focus their attention on the car and on the road, rather than succumb to distractions which — even if they last for mere moments — can snuff out their lives at an early age.

Jim S. Adler & Associates supports safe teen driving, Safe Kids, Mothers Against Drunk Driving and the Joint City/County Commission on Children in Houston and Harris County.

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