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According to the American Automobile Association (AAA), the first 100 days following Memorial Day are the deadliest on American roads, especially for teenage drivers with more teens on the road during the summer. According to the CDC, there were nearly 2,400 teens in the United States aged 13–19 killed and about 258,000 more injured in motor vehicle crashes in 2019 alone. Motor vehicle crashes are currently the second largest cause of death for teenagers. These statistics can be concerning for any parents getting ready to hand over the keys to the family car to their new teenage driver.
Many innovators have worked on ideas to keep teenage drivers safe during this deadly period of time following Memorial Day. One example is a father who has used his experience as an experienced pilot and technology expert to devise an app that works to help drivers of all ages navigate potentially dangerous weather situations that could impact safe driving.
Paxton Calvanese has seen his fair share of dicey weather while flying, and his suite of weather apps addresses the decision-making process that is necessary when weighing whether or not to travel during bad weather. An experienced pilot, Calvanese took the terrifying experience of a particularly dangerous flight with his family on board and used it to create an app to help take the guesswork out of traveling in bad weather.
“Things really changed when I took my kids on a flight to the Badlands and ended up in a life-or-death situation due to unexpected weather,” Calvanese told Medium, “After that experience, I committed myself to developing my vision.”
That vision not only included an app that helps pilots navigate potentially dangerous weather situations. Using that same technology, Calvanese launched an idea that could help drivers, as well.
Drive Weather Drives Decisions
One of the major learning curves with new drivers is navigating the myriad of decisions that need to be made when behind the wheel. The Drive Weather app informs some of those decisions by detailing the weather forecast along your driving route. When a new driver sets out on the road, the skies may look clear, but potentially dangerous weather could be a few miles up the road.
Drive Weather lets drivers know what to expect no matter where they may be on their journey. The app shows the forecast based on route at the drive time, so the weather indications are accurate and applicable to your trip.
Warm Weather Driving Disasters
One of the reasons the first 100 days after Memorial Day are some of the deadliest on the roads involves several factors. Both new and experienced drivers need to factor in things like sun glare, busier roads due to increased travel and tourism, more construction, and pop-up rain storms when they head out to drive.
It is estimated that 22% of accidents occur due to bad weather conditions. Bad weather can impact visibility, vehicle performance, traffic flow, and reaction times. Many new drivers simply do not have the hours behind the wheel necessary to tackle bad weather effectively.
Creating a Plan
Apps like Drive Weather help to potentially save lives by offering new drivers the ability to create an action plan before they even start their engines. The up-to-date and accurate reporting from the app allows drivers to make sound decisions about where to drive, how to approach driving, or whether they should drive at all.
The Drive Weather app is perfect for both teens and their parents or guardians by taking large amounts of data and packaging it in an easy-to-understand, succinct manner. This allows the driver to quickly educate themselves on the weather conditions and make sound decisions about their travel plans. “For a public, consumer app, it had to be slick and easy to use,” Calvanese says.
To date, Calvanese’s Drive Weather app has scored over 150,000 downloads and 14,000 new subscribers for 2022. Calvanese regularly fields emails from users praising the app and its role in keeping people safe on the road.
New drivers have enough to contend with as they get comfortable behind the wheel, as we head into the dog days of summer with unpredictable storms and busy highways, Drive Weather gives an extra degree of safety for teen drivers and those who love them.
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This content is brought to you by Scott Bartnick
Inset photo provided by the author.
Feature photo: iStockPhoto