3 Tips to Prepare Your Teen for College Drinking and Driving

For many, the school year is coming to an end. For high school seniors, college is just around the corner. Are you a worried parent about your teenager leaving for college? Do you worry about the decisions that they will make, when away from home? Many colleges are subject to parties and alcohol consumption. This becomes a problem when drinking and driving occurs. A single DUI or alcohol related accident can affect a teen?s life for many years. Reduce the chance of your teen being involved in a DUI charge with the following precautions.

Discussing options with them
Discussing how wrong drinking and driving is with your teens may not be enough. They may promise to never engage in drinking and driving, but forget this promise when a specific situation arises. With 28 people dying daily in America as a result of drunk driving, a more thorough and helpful plan is needed. Instead of requested that they refrain from drinking and driving, help them come up with a plan. If an event requires transportation, and they or friends have been drinking, what are some of their options?

Teens that have alternative choices are more likely to remember this plan, instead of resorting to driving under the influence. A couple of options include calling a family member or friend with no questions asked, arranging for a cab or transportation service, or spending the night where they are. Coming up with options together can help to develop a plan that is more likely to be followed in the moment.

Avoid personal vehicle usage
Depending on the location of the college, personal transportation may not be needed. Busier cities and metropolitan areas have public transport systems. This can reduce any temptations of drinking and driving. If your teen will be involved in any drinking, they will be primarily using the public transportation system. However, it is still important to discuss the risks of this with them. It is also important to ensure that other needed amenities are available by public transportation, including food, convenience stores, and medical facilities.

Ignition interlock device
If your teen must have their personal vehicle on campus and you are still worried about drinking and driving, consider using ignition interlock companies. Ignition interlock companies sell an interlock cup for sale that acts as a car breathalyzer. This discreet breathalyzer requires your teen to breath into it before operating. It then continues to test throughout the drive, to prevent them from ever going over the legal drinking limit.

One of the additional benefits of using the ignition interlock system from ignition interlock companies is the awareness of the legal limit. Once your teen reaches 21, they may have one or two drinks and believe that they are okay to drive. However, it can be very difficult to accurately gauge the blood alcohol content level. There are many factors that affect this, including body weight, amount of food eaten, and type of alcohol consumed. In many states, you can still be arrested for and convicted of DUI with a BAC below 0.08. Prevent a drinking and driving mistake from occurring and ruining your child?s life with ignition interlock companies.

Sending your teen off to college to live on their own for the first time can be very difficult for any parent. It is the point in their life that you have to begin trusting them. Yet, many teens make the mistake of drinking and driving and are left with legal records and severe fines and charges. Before your teen heads off to college, ensure that you have developed a drinking and transportation plan, arrange public transportation for them to avoid temptation, and install an ignition interlock system. There are already 150,000 interlock systems and counting now in cars in the U.S., placed there for drivers with multiple DUI convictions. They can, however, also be great for preventing a DUI.