Item: Flaxman Law Group
Rating: 5
Author: Clara Barman

Underage Drinking and the Holidays in Hollywood and South Florida

Published on: December 25, 2015 | By Flaxman Law Group

Many parents don’t want to consider that their children drink alcohol, but statistics show the majority of high school graduates will have tried alcohol at least once and will have been intoxicated at least once – well before their 21st birthday.

No matter what your personal opinions about underage drinking, the reality is that during the holiday season underage drinking may be an especially considerable problem. Teenagers may be spending time with friends or heading to holiday events where alcohol will be served. It can be difficult to think about this or talk about it with your family, but it’s an important topic. Underage drinking is a danger to your family for two main reasons:

It can lead to serious health concerns, including a dependence on alcohol or even alcohol poisoning
It can lead to drunk driving accidents

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Talk to Your Teens about Safe Holiday Driving

Published on: December 23, 2015 | By Flaxman Law Group

If you have teenagers in your home, you need to have a conversation about safe holiday driving. If your teens don’t drive yet, you may think that they are safe. However, they may still be getting dropped off by an older friend, and the risk of drunk driving accidents is still there.

If you have new drivers in your home, your teenagers need to understand the dangers of holiday driving. You may also need to set limits and rules to ensure they drive safely.

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Speeding and Young Drivers: A Deadly Combination

Published on: October 14, 2015 | By Flaxman Law Group

Young drivers taking drivers classes are frequently told that driving is a privilege and the dangers of cars are carefully explained. Many young drivers are safe and responsible behind the wheel of a car, but some choose to speed, which can result in deadly single vehicle accidents in Hollywood and other Florida communities.

Single-vehicle accidents that claim the lives of young drivers are devastating for entire communities. A few days ago, two teens were killed in Lakewood Ranch when they lost control of their vehicle. The vehicle struck a tree with such force that car split in two and was tossed across two lanes. The entire community is in mourning over these lives lost too soon.

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Tips for Your New Driver’s First Summer on the Road

Published on: June 4, 2015 | By Flaxman Law Group

Do you have new teenage drivers in your household? If so, they may be looking forward to getting on the road this summer. You, however, might be worried about their safety. After all, Hollywood and Florida authorities sometimes note that teens and new drivers have a potentially higher risk of injuries and crashes.

To make sure that your teenager has a good first summer on the road with a reduced risk of injuries, make sure that you:

Set some ground rules.

Studies have suggested that teenage passengers are one of the leading causes of distraction for teenage drivers and can increase the risk of car accidents considerably. Set rules about the number of friends that your teenager can have in the car at any one time. Also, make sure that your teen knows the dangers of distracted driving and drunk driving. Give your teen statistics about distraction and DUI accidents in Hollywood and Florida. Make it clear that driving privileges will be revoked if your teen drives unsafely.

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Celebrate National Youth Traffic Safety Month by Helping Your Teen Drive Safer

Published on: May 5, 2015 | By Flaxman Law Group

May has been declared National Youth Traffic Safety Month by the National Organizations for Youth Safety.If you have a young driver at home, May is a good month to sit down to discuss car safety. There are several things that you can do this month to ensure that your young drivers stay safe behind the wheel:

1) Get your young driver additional driving classes.

One of the best things you can do for your teen drivers is to get them additional instruction. More instruction can mean getting them defensive driving classes, refresher courses, additional one-on-one training with a professional driving instructor, or even race classes. Getting additional help behind the wheel from a qualified professional can ensure that your teen isn’t forming bad habits n and gives them more focused instruction with practical hands-on experience.

Keep in mind that many drivers’ education classes only have a limited amount of instruction time on the road. In addition, most Drivers’ Ed courses involve multiple teens in a vehicle at the same time, which means that the instructor’s attention is divided and each teen might not get a lot of one-on-one instruction or a chance to ask many questions. One-on-one instruction can be invaluable and can help address some of the questions and problems a young driver may be having.

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Would Changing Driver Testing And Training Make The Streets Of Hollywood Safer?

Published on: March 17, 2015 | By Flaxman Law Group

Although teen drivers account for only 7% of all Florida drivers, they are part of almost a quarter of all traffic accidents on our roadways. Safety experts have offered many explanations for this phenomenon. Some claim that teens and young drivers may simply not have yet developed the skills to avoid collisions in Hollywood and communities. In addition, some youthful drivers may engage in more risk-taking activities, in part because their decision-making processes and understanding of consequence works differently than it does with adults.

However, some experts also say that licensing laws in the state as well as training expectations could be putting new drivers at a disadvantage. There have been calls to change education standards and testing to ensure that drivers are more ready for the responsibility of driving a car.

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Teens May be Increasing Their Risk of Collisions by Driving Older Cars, Study Concludes

Published on: January 13, 2015 | By Flaxman Law Group

Getting a first car is a rite of passage for many teens. In many cases, a teen’s first car is either a used car purchased with savings or an older family car. For years, safety experts have been warning that older cars driven by teens may not have the newest safety technology and may not be in excellent mechanical repair, increasing the risk of collision for new drivers who may not have the best driving habits established yet. According to experts, older cars may not be as crash safe as newer vehicles, increasing the risk of injuries in the event of a car collision in Coral Gables or another community.

A new study suggests that those warnings may have been correct.

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Driving Tips for Teens

Published on: November 21, 2014 | By Flaxman Law Group

If you are a teen with a new driver’s license, you may be eager to get on the road. But did you know that teen drivers have higher rates of car accidents in Miami and other cities when compared with adult drivers? The problem is that even if you have done all the work and gotten your license, you are still learning all the ins and outs of operating a motor vehicle. If you live in a city like Miami, you also have to contend with high volumes of traffic and other drivers.

You can help avoid a car accident by following these tips designed especially for teen drivers:

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The Things Your Teens Need to Learn to Avoid Car Collisions

Published on: October 30, 2014 | By Flaxman Law Group

According to 2014 research from Dennis Durbin of the Center for Injury Research and Prevention, graduated licensing programs do not remove many of the risks new drivers face when they behind the wheel. According to Durbin, 54% of teen drivers who have had at least six months of practice driving still make serious mistakes when given a driving assessment. Some of these mistakes include running stop signs and hitting curbs. The study backs the findings of a 2011 study conducted by Robert Foss. That study found that teen drivers have higher accident rates in the first several months after getting their license.

A new study, conducted by Arthur Goodwin, of the Highway Safety Research Center, found that there are several things that parents can do to improve their teen’s chances of avoiding car collisions in Hollywood and other communities:

1) Go beyond vehicle handling. According to Goodwin and his team of researchers, when parents teach their children how to drive, they tend to focus on basic vehicle handling. Once teens have mastered this skill, however, it is a good idea to teach defensive driving as well as the decision-making processes that go into successful driving.

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Helping Teen Drivers Avoid Car Collisions

Published on: October 28, 2014 | By Flaxman Law Group

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), teen drivers are over-represented in serious car crashes, especially fatal collisions. To help combat teen car accidents, the NHTSA has introduced their 5 to Drive, which are five rules to help teens stay safer on the roads:

1) Enforce a “no cellphones” rule.

New drivers need to focus fully on driving, especially since they are still developing their driving skills. Using mobile devices in any way – whether to talk to text – can be a big distraction that can lead to car collisions in Homestead and other communities. Studies have even shown that hands-free devices can cause distraction, so the best solution is to have a “no mobile device” rule in the car. There are apps and car technologies that automatically incapacitate cell phones while a car is moving, which can take away any temptation to check messages. According to the NHTSA, driver distraction contributes to about 10 percent of fatal teen driver collisions, so enforcing this rule is vital to keep your child safe.

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