Teaching Your Teen to Drive; Orland Driving School and State Farm Ins. have Tips

State Farm Insurance Agent Kevin Molloy, member of the Lincoln-Way High School District 210 Board of Education, and Dan O'Connell, owner of the newly located A-Orland Driving School, located at 1800 E. Lincoln Highway, directly across the street from Lincoln-Way Central High School, have teens and their safety in mind.

It's fall, the time of year when students are getting their permits and driver's education classes are bulking up. It's a rite of passage for most teens, but Molloy and O'Connell want to remind them that driving is a privilege.

It's this time of year that Molloy's office at 828 W. Laraway Road makes sure to store State Farm Insurance Steer Clear kits, which are driver's education packages for teens and their parents. "It's a book that talks about safe driving for tens. There's a powerful DVD that goes with it," he said.

Molloy comes to the discussion wearing two hats: he's the father of three (all of whom have a driver's license) and an insurance agent.  

Speaking as a parent, he said, "There's never a more nerve-wracking time than when your teenager gets that permit."

Naturally the kids get behind-the-wheel experience at the public school or at a private facility. But as parents, "we're going to be the ones on the front lines." The driver's education cars are equipped with a passenger side break and a sign on the car that alerts surrounding motorists that there is learner on the road.

At home, there is no way that another motorist can identify a student driver. Molloy said the situation can be tedious.

"You have an untrained teacher (the parent)" taking their teen out on the road. To start, most parents avoid major traffic, keeping to empty parking lots and lonely country roads. The less traveled roads pose a risk too because those mailboxes out there occasionally get bumped by new drivers, he added.

Within the first year or so, most new drivers suffer a mishap, most of which are minor dings in a parking lot or not too terrible collisions, according to Molloy. However, it's that smaller percentage of tragedies that keep parents awake when their teen is out with the car.

In a world where flashing neon signs, music in the car, cell phones and more vie for attention, it's tough to teach teens to ignore the superfluous noise and pay attention to the road. They learn early that driving is both a mode of transportation and a social activity, said O'Connell. The problem is that they have a tendency to get lost up in the conversation that's going on around them or on the cell phone.

It takes awhile to acquire the kind of finesse that a parent has learned while driving cross country or across town countless times with the family.   

Having run the driver's education program for Providence Catholic High School since 1993, O'Connell and his group of 15 instructors with offices in Orland Park, Homer Glen, Bradley, Frankfort and two in New Lenox, reminds student drivers that distractions can be deadly. Of course drinking and driving or texting and driving is a sin that's both illegal and unsafe.

But not all distractions are electronic or substance abuse related. It could be reaching for a bottle of juice or a spilled bag of French fries that causes a driver to lose control or focus on the road.

Whatever the situation, if "our mind is taken off the driving task," then the potential is there for an accident, said O'Connell.

Molloy said it's unfortunate but the simplest mishap can put someone in a wheelchair for life or worse. That's why he stocks up Steer Clear kits particularly at this time of year. It's a great tool that helps both parents and teen drivers.