Keep the Holidays Safe

Tips for parents and teens

Thanksgiving, the unofficial start of the holiday season, is right around the corner. Very soon, teens and young adults will come home from college and families will travel to celebrate the upcoming holiday.  The result? A high-risk mix of young, inexperienced drivers on the road, increased traffic, long-distance and late-night traveling, and parties and activities where alcohol has been served.

Thanksgiving Holiday Stats:

• There are four major federal holidays where the incidence of fatal crashes is higher than average. Thanksgiving has the highest rate. (Insurance Institute for Highway Safety).
• More people, 431, died on Thanksgiving Day 2010, (the most recent year for which data is available) than any other holiday that year (NHTSA).

• Over the 6 years from 2004-2009, fatalities during the Thanksgiving holiday period (Wednesday evening through midnight Sunday) averaged 15.26% of the total fatalities in November (National Safety Council; FARS data).

If your teen is driving, remind them: 

• Drinking under the age of 21 is illegal, unhealthy and unacceptable.
• Buckle Up. Seat belts dramatically reduce risk of death and serious injury. Among drivers and front-seat passengers, seat belts reduce the risk of death by 45%, and cut the risk of serious injury by 50%. In fatal motor-vehicle crashes, the majority of teens (16 to 20 years old) continue to be unbuckled (56% in 2009) (NHTSA).
• Obey the speed limit.  Speed is a factor in more than 35% of fatal teen driver crashes.
• No cell phone use while driving.
• No texting. Drivers who text are 23 times more likely to get into a crash.
• Limit the number of teen passengers. Research shows that teen drivers are more than twice as likely to engage in a risky driving behavior with one additional peer passenger (13% vs. 5.7%) and almost three times as likely with two or more peer passengers (15.5% vs. 5.7%) (NHTSA).   

For more safe driving tips, visit NHTSA's 5 to Drive safe driving program for teens.

If your teen is attending a holiday party, keep these tips from the Partnership at Drugfree.org in mind:

• Know where your teen is going and ask lots of questions. Who will be there? Will adults be home? Will alcohol be present? 
• Talk with your teen about situations in which he or she might be offered alcohol. Plan ways for how they can respond. 
• Make a plan with your teen for how he or she will get home. Remind them to never get in a car with a driver who has been drinking. Have an agreement that if your teen calls to ask for a ride, you will come immediately, with no questions asked until later.  

Use SADD's Contract for Life to facilitate communication about difficult decisions and to establish an understanding about expectations. 

For tips on talking with your teen about substance use and for strategies to refuse drugs and alcohol, try The Parent Talk Kit.

What's one easy thing you can do to keep your teen safe?  Be a good role model!  Drink responsibly.  Never drive under the influence. Never get into the car with an impaired driver. Your teen is watching and you are the biggest influence on their decisions!

Are you looking for a new way to connect with your teen?  FamilyeJournal (FEJ) is a free and interactive website that promotes family communication using today's technology.    

The program is based on a Q&A format; over a period of time, family members receive sets of "everyday" questions that they and other family members answer online and then read others' responses to the same questions.

By sharing your thoughts and feelings regularly and in a safe environment, your family will develop a new level of rapport and connection. Studies show when people feel a strong connection, their behaviors and decision-making improve dramatically.

E-cigarettes

What parents and teens need to know

Electronic cigarettes, more commonly known as e-cigarettes, have generated a lot of buzz lately and it's easy to see why. There are hundreds of brands of e-cigarettes currently being marketed in the U.S. and they differ just enough from traditional cigarettes to create a new kind of concern about youth use.

How are e-cigarettes different? 

• Some e-cigs are made to look like traditional cigarettes, while others look distinctly different.
• E-cigarettes heat liquid nicotine to create an inhalable water vapor without the tar of normal cigarettes.
• No tobacco ... no tobacco smell!
• Unlike the restrictions imposed on traditional tobacco products, currently there are no regulations on the advertising and marketing of e-cigarettes.
• E-cigarettes can be cheaper than traditional cigarettes.  E-cigs require a starter kit and refills, but over the span of a month, traditional cigarettes are estimated to cost about twice as much.

Prevention specialists say these factors have contributed to an increase in the number of teens using e-cigarettes.  When there are fewer barriers to prevent youth from accessing harmful substances (low cost, readily available, heavily advertised, less noticeable), they are more likely to start using.

In a recent article by the Partnership at DrugFree.org, health and law enforcement officials agreed that e-cigarettes present the potential risk of an increase in teen smoking and an addiction to nicotine. Data from the Center of Disease Control (CDC) shows that use of e-cigarettes among middle and high schools students doubled from 2011 to 2012 and that 10 percent of high school students had tried an e-cigarette last year, compared with 5 percent the previous year. Preventionists view e-cigarettes as a dangerous gateway to other tobacco products, citing that e-cigarettes promote an addiction to nicotine that can lead to the use of traditional cigarettes containing lethal tar and other chemicals.

SADD reminds parents to talk with their teens about tobacco use.  If you're not sure where to begin, click here.  SADD has compiled facts, warning signs, quizzes, and research to help you begin the conversation.  

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