At the close of September, Fluvanna County’s newest class of teen drivers gathered with their parents and instructors to learn the sad truth about speeding and distracted driving in a cooperative effort of Fluvanna County High School, The Fluvanna Rotary Club and Virginia State Police.

While traffic fatalities among Virginia teen drivers has fallen (nearly in half) in recent years, Trooper Anthony Clure, a former Fluvanna County deputy, did not hesitate to speak of the impact dangerous driving habits has had on Virginia’s kids.

“Fluvanna County High School has averaged a student death each year, for the last 10 years, to a motor vehicle accident,” he said. Traffic accidents are the leading cause of death among Virginians under 30. And teen death rates increase “with each additional passenger.”

“I was normally a pretty good driver,” he said of his own teen driving experience, “but add one or two of my buddies and all the sudden [his driving] became NASCAR.”

Parents are cautioned to be sure their licensed teens either drive alone or with adults because the urge to show off and/or make uncommon decisions increases when peers are present.

The trooper showed a slow-motion video of a low-speed collision in which a dummy driver and its passenger were tossed around the cab of a pickup truck before the unbelted passenger went through the windshield. The audience went silent in response.

Guest speaker Richard Wharam, drivers’ education instructor for Albemarle County schools, urged parents to lead by example.

“Know the (driving) laws of Virginia and follow them,” he said. Omitting the use of seatbelts, following too closely, overcorrecting and failing to signal before turning are all habits that parents can pass on to their kids.

Nationwide, the number one source of driver inattention is due to the use of a wireless device.

“It is illegal to text while driving,” Wharam mentioned. And while cell phones, tablets and even laptops are the greatest distractions, speeding is still a leading cause of collision. What’s worse? Driver overcorrection.

Over steering in reaction to an event is “the number one cause of collision” according to Clure. If someone suddenly finds that his or her vehicle is headed off road, instead of jerking the wheel to get the car back in the lane, “let off the gas, stay straight—slowly get off the pavement.”

Wharam said it helps to sing a quick song. His chorus of “I’m in a ditch and I’m alive! I’m in a ditch and I’m alive! I’m in a ditch and I’m alive!” was met with a round of laughter from families sitting in the bleachers and his message was well received. “Be happy,” he said. “Get the car down to 25 mph.”

The driving instructor offered safe practices for parents who will be training their teens to drive our rural and city roadways and then handpicked parent and student volunteers to convey driver behavior in a number of scenarios.

If the lessons, laws and the graphic images depicting what could happen to a car full of people when a driver is distracted did not convey the level of consciousness our young drivers need to exhibit, then perhaps the meaning of 10 empty chairs facing them from the middle of the school’s gymnasium was.