Take Steps For Your Teen Driver’s Safety
Keep the following in mind if your teen is a beginning driver…
Parents should practice driving with your teen as often as you can.
The more experience they have behind the wheel, the safer they’ll drive.
Make sure your new driver and their passengers always wear their seat belts. Don’t allow your teen drive when crashes are more prone to happen like at night or when there are other teens in the car, also impose a zero tolerance policy for drinking alcohol and driving.
The teen specific laws for Ohio are the following: 18 and under
- Finish and pass the driver knowledge test, and vision screening, then the teen has to go to a Deputy Registrar License Agency to get their Temporary Instruction Permit Identification Card (TPIC)
- When driving the TIPIC must be carried at all times
- The TIPIC holder must be at least fifteen years and six months of old, but not sixteen years old yet. The teen has to be driving with a licensed parent/guardian/certified-driving instructor who physically in the seat next the driver
- A parent or legal guardian who cannot accompany the minor may sign a Loco Parentis Affidavit. The affidavit permits a responsible driver 21 years old to fulfill the parental responsibilities in the when the parent or legal guardian cannot
- Once the TIPIC holder is 16 years old they may drive with a valid licensed driver who is 21 years old or older
- The TIPIC holder has to complete 24 hours of classroom instruction and 8 hours of driving with a certified instructor
- The TIPIC holder must complete 50 hours of driving and at least 10 hours at night. A parent must certify the 50 hours of driving. These hours are not included in the driver education requirements
- The TIPIC must be held for at least 6 months before taking the skills test and being able to get an Ohio driver license
- Teens are not allowed to drive any motor vehicle with more than one person who is not a family member, except if the licensed teen is driving with their parent/guardian/legal custodian
- Teens are not allowed to drive from 12 Midnight to 6 a.m., except if the teen is driving with a parent/guardian
- If the teen is convicted of having one moving violation during the first six months of having their driver’s license, the teen may be required to be chaperoned by a parent/guardian whenever they drive any motorized vehicle during the six-months after the date that the teen is convicted/pleads guilty to the moving violation or until the teen turns 17 years old
Create a Parent-Teen Driving Agreement that sets the rules of the road. Then talk about the rules of the road and the consequences of what happens when your teen doesn’t follow them.
