To paraphrase Dicken's most oft-repeated line - "It is the most exciting time; It is the most frightening time."

Your teen is growing up. He or she is developing into a unique adult, learning to make potentially life altering decisions. But there are many dangers and risks that you as a adult have learned over the years that your teen is probably unaware of or at least unconcerned about at the moment. The greatest risk to American teens is driving.

Generally speaking, teens believe they can drive even before they ever take their first driving lesson. Afterall, they've been watching you drive for over 10 years and it certainly looks simple enough. And they've been driving toys and playing video games in which they drive for years. How hard can driving a car be?

(Were you aware that your child has been watching your behavior behind the wheel for at least 10 years and learning from it - learning all of your bad habits along with our good ones. Think about that the next time you're in the car together and you get a call on your cell phone.)

Car crashes are the number one killer of teens in America. Each year we lose betwen 5,000 and 6,000 teens to car crashes involving teen drivers. Another 300,000 are injured. The death toll is equivalent to taking 120 school buses fully loaded with high school football teams, cheerleaders, bands and pep squads and driving them off a cliff. ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY FULLY LOADED SCHOOL BUSES!!

As a parent, you want to protect your child as much as possible and ensuring that he or she has the right training and knowledge is key. Should you teach your child to drive? Should you send her or him to a driving school? What other steps should you take?

You have taken the right first step - becoming informed.

The following materials and links are provided so that you may make the best decisions as to how best to help your child become a safe driver.

Dowload the UPS Driver IQ test. While you're at it why not take it yourself?

Use the UPS Hazard Recognition Ride to teach your teen how to focus on driving.

Which teen drivers are safer - those taught by parents or those taught by professional driving instructors? CLICK HERE to read the exeutive summary of Parent-Taught Driver Education in Texas: A Comparative Evaluation published by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administratio. To read the full study visit www.nhtsa.gov.

Print out a copy of the Allstate Insurance Parent-Teen Driving Contract .

Print out a copy of Your Teen Driver: Tips For Parents , a brochure about how parents can better teach their teen to drive , which is published by the Safe America Foundation for its Teen Driving Institute.

Safe America will use this page of our Web site as a repository of information for you to use in coming to the best course of action for you regarding your child and their driving training.

For feedback regarding this site, email Safe America at us here .