MARTIN COUNTY, Fla. — Teen motor vehicle crashes are preventable and experts say proven strategies can improve the safety of young drivers on the road.
The conversation is getting added attention this week after a teen driver was involved in a crash with a minivan in Martin County, resulting in four deaths.
Having a teenager behind the wheel can be an incredibly stressful time for parents.
"Until they walk in the door, you worry," Barbara DeMichele, a parent who lives in Stuart, said. "You worry about them. You worry about how fast they go, and you try to teach them the best methods of safe driving, but you're always worried."
There's increasingly more technology allowing parents to keep tabs on where their young driver is and at what speed they are driving.
Much of the technology that is available to parents involves apps, which can be installed on a teen's phone and provide real-time data while they are in a car.
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"There's a ton of apps out there. The big question is how much you want to pay and what specific features you want," Alan Crowetz, president and CEO of InfoStream, Inc., said
WPTV sorted through the different apps.
"Are they braking hard, are they accelerating hard, their capabilities, tracks if they use the phone, texting, aggressive driving, speeding, so it does track where the speed limit is in any given area and if they're over that limit," Crowetz explained.
Life360, RoadReady, Bouncie are a few of the most commonly used ones.
WPTV also found some cars, specifically Tesla, have built-in safety features.
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"Tesla has its own mobile app where you can track teenage drivers remotely, everything from setting a maximum speed, setting a maximum acceleration, you can make it so the car won't do it, even if they want to do it they can't go over it," Crowetz said. "Prevent your teenage driver from speeding, you can get alerts with a Tesla."
Prices for the apps range from $7.99 to $24.99 per month.
