Safer Student Driving

Welcome to lesson seven on safer student driving as part of the Mountain View Safe Routes to School program. This recording is required viewing for any high school student who is seeking a parking permit. Whether you drive every day, ride with friends, or about to get your license, this is for you. It's also important for parents and guardians. This is the seventh lesson of the grade 11 curriculum. This is a note for parents and guardians. Your student is watching this recording because they are required to do that to apply for a parking permit on the high school campus. We encourage you to watch this recording together. Talk honestly about the responsibilities that come with driving. Discuss the consequences of driving improperly. Things like license suspension, insurance increases that can last for years, and your own financial liability as a parent who signed the Department of Motor Vehicles application. Set clear expectations about phones, passengers, and curfew. Then verify the basics. The vehicle is registered, insured, and your student is named on the policy. The car has working seatbelts, lights, brakes, and tires that are properly inflated. Insurance and registration are in the car. And there's an agreement between you and your student on the rules of vehicle use. When you sign the Department of Motor Vehicles application, you became legally responsible. This lesson is meant to um elevate some of the responsibilities that your student driver has as well. One thing to keep in mind, this recording is not driver's license preparation, and it is not driver's education. It is a community and student safety lesson as part of the City of Mountain View's Safe Routes to School program, and it's meant to share safer driving behaviors and the things every student driver should know. Finally, a reminder on the permit process. If your student is applying for a parking permit at the school, both the student and a parent or guardian are also re- required to watch the lesson uh six e-bike safety recording as well as this one. Before we get into the rules of driving, let's pause on something important. Driving yourself to school isn't your only option. It's not even always the best one. Let's look at what else is available before you commit to driving every day. Driving alone every day costs more than you think in financial, environmental, and health stresses. There are many other options. Look at the ones on the right. If you live within a mile of school, walk walking or bicycling is often faster than driving once you factor in traffic and parking. Mountain View has over 10 miles of multi-use trails connecting high schools with residential communities. The Youth Clipper Card gives you discounted rides across BART, Caltrain, VTA, and Muni. And carpooling cuts your costs and reduces the number of cars near campus. If you decide driving is still the right choice for you, the rest of this recording is required. Let's get into it. So, why are you watching this lesson? Why does the school require this for a parking permit? Let's talk about who your driving affects and who needs to hear this message. Every time you drive, your choices ripple outward. The kid crossing the street, the cyclist next to you, the neighbor you blocked, even the driver behind you who's learning from from how you drive. Finally, people who drive with you are trusting you with their lives. Your decisions affect them. So, who is this for? If you're a student seeking a parking permit at Mountain View High School or Los Altos High School, this lesson, the e-bike safety lesson, and the combined quiz are required. If you ride with friends who drive, you need to know what they should be doing. If you're a parent who signed the Department of Motor Vehicles application, you share legal responsibility for what your teen does behind the wheel. This recording is for everyone in the driving ecosystem, not just upcoming or licensed drivers. As background, California uses a three-step graduated licensing system. With a permit, you can never drive alone, an adult 25 or older must be in the front passenger seat every time. You hold the permit at least 6 months and log 50 supervised hours including 10 at night. Once you pass your driving test, you get a provisional license at age 16. You can now drive alone, but there are still restrictions. We'll cover those on the next slide. After 12 months with no violations or when you turn 18, you get a full license, but even then the hands-free phone law and driving under the influence laws apply for life. Importantly, to park at high school, you need at least a provisional license and your provisional restrictions still apply on campus and during your drive to and from school. Here are two graduated driver's license rules students violate most often. For the first 12 months of your provisional license, you cannot drive with passengers under age 20. Siblings count. Friends count. Everyone under 20 counts. The only exception is having a licensed adult 25 or older in the car with you. You also cannot drive between 11:00 p.m. and 5:00 a.m. The only exceptions are having a qualifying adult with you or having signed documentation for school activities, work, medical needs, or emergencies. These rules exist because the data show that the first 12 months of driving are when crashes are most likely. What are points? Think of them as the Department of Motor Vehicles is score of your driving. Every time you get a ticket or cause a crash, points get added to your record and too many points means you lose your license. Most everyday violations like speeding or running a red light are one point. More serious ones like a like driving under the influence or a hit-and-run are two points with more severe consequences for minors who violate violate the zero tolerance law. Here is why that matters for you. As a driver under 18, just two points in a single year puts you under a 30-day restriction and three points means a six-month suspension. And those points stick around. A regular ticket stays about three years. The serious ones stay at least 10. Turning 18 does not reset the clock and a suspension means you are not driving yourself anywhere including to school. And remember, your parents signed the Department of Motor Vehicles driver's license application. They can be held financially responsible for what you do behind the wheel. How you can risk getting points. Distraction comes in three forms and risks you getting points. Visual distraction is anything that takes your eyes off the road like reading a text or looking at GPS. Manual distractions take your hands off the wheel like eating, holding your phone, or adjusting music. Cognitive distractions take your mind off driving which is replaying and some examples of that are replaying an argument in your head, intense conversations, or stress. If you're under 18, you cannot use your phone for any reason while driving. Not calls, not texts, not GPS, not music, not even hands-free. The only exception is calling 911. In 2025, the People vs. Porter ruling closed the loophole. Even just looking at your phone while holding it counts as using it. 5 seconds looking at your phone at 55 mph is the same as driving the length of a football field blindfolded. The fix is simple. Set everything up before you start driving and put the phone out of reach. California has zero tolerance for underage drinking and driving. If you're under 21 and your blood alcohol is at or above 0.01, that's well below feeling drunk. Just one sip of wine can get you there and you and you lose your license for a year. Cannabis counts, too. There's no safe THC limit. If an officer believes you're impaired, you can be cited and arrested. Prescription drugs that affect alertness, like Adderall, Vicodin, allergy meds, also count. And if you refuse a chemical test when an officer suspects driving under the influence, that alone triggers a 1-year suspension. Implied consent. The best way to handle this is to plan ahead. Before you go out, decide how you're getting home. Designated driver, ride-share, or plan to call a parent. The awkward call home is always better than the alternative. Also, know that cycling under the influence can result in the same license suspension. Speed kills, especially near schools, where there are more youth who are more vulnerable to crashes. Under California's new Assembly Bill 382 law, cities can lower school zone speed limits to 20 mph or 15 mph on narrow two-lane streets. Mountain View is updating signage citywide and the applicable speed limits. So, stay aware of the current posted limits. Why does this matter? Look at the chart. If you hit a pedestrian at 20 mph, there's a 5% chance they die. At 30 mph, that jumps to 45%. At 40 mph, it's 85%. Just 20 extra mph turns a survivable survivable crash into a fatal one. Every 5 mile per hour that you trim near a school zone changes whether a mistake becomes a tragedy. Slow down. The kids walking to school have parents who are counting on you. In this and upcoming slides, we are going to describe common mistakes drivers of all ages make. These are the behaviors that get student drivers ticketed, crashed, or hurt. Most happen without students thinking they're doing anything wrong. Let's talk about what students actually do wrong at drop-off and pick-up. Stopping in red zones or double parking, even for 30 seconds, gets you towed at your expense plus a citation. Repeated violations cost you your parking permit. Stopping in a bike lane forces cyclists out into moving traffic. Stopping in a crosswalk pushes pedestrians into the road to get around your car. The fix costs you a few minutes. Use a designated zone. Build in extra time. And if the line is long, wait. Don't stop in a bike lane or crosswalk, even for a second. Are you thinking about cutting through residential neighborhoods at high speed to skip traffic? Neighbors notice. They report repeat offenders. The speed limit on residential streets is 25 miles per hour and it's lower during periods when school zone speed limits apply. Note that fines are doubled in school zones. Mid-block U-turns are illegal and they cause pedestrians close calls regularly. The fix for all three is the same. Build in a few extra minutes, plan your route, and obey the speed limit. Saving 2 minutes is never worth what these violations can cost you or the consequences of a preventable crash. On the road, you can plan to avoid these three mistakes. Rolling through the stop racing yellow lights, or tailgating. First, rolling through stop signs. A full stop means a wheel stop turning for at least 1 second. A rolling stop is legally not a stop. That's a citation, a point on your record, and if you hit a pedestrian or cyclist in the crosswalk, a civil liability. Second, racing yellow lights. Yellow means prepare to stop. Default to stopping if you can do it safely. If you crash trying to beat the light, you're at fault. Third, tailgating. It's the number one cause of rear-end crashes for teen drivers. Use the 3-second rule. Pick a sign, count 1,001, 1,002, 1,003 after the car ahead passes it. If you reach the sign before three, you're too close. Add a second for Add a fourth second for rain, fog, or darkness. Two more on-road mistakes worth calling out include not yielding to pedestrians or cyclists, and using the phone. Not using yielding to pedestrians or cyclists. This happens because drivers look left for cars and forget to look right for people, or they turn right without checking the bike lane. The fix is to look left for cars, right for pedestrians, then over your shoulder for cyclists. Wait for pedestrians to fully clear the crosswalk, and give cyclists space. And finally, phone use. Even a quick glance. We covered this earlier, but it bears repeating here. If you're under 18, any phone use while driving is illegal. Set up everything before you drive. If you absolutely must check your phone, pull over and park first. Mistakes in the parking lot can cause you to lose your permit. Reckless backing out causes the most pedestrian injuries on school campuses. Walk around your car before you get in. Kids, bags, anything could be behind you. Back Back out at 1 to 2 mph, check behind your shoulder, then your mirrors, and if you have one, then the camera. Speeding to exit at the end of the day is the most common parking lot citation. The campus speed limit is 10 mph. Witnesses report it. School administration will know. Saving 2 minutes isn't worth your permit. And donuts, tire squealing, modified loud mufflers, these are explicitly banned at school and result in a permanent loss of a permit. And if you're a passenger in a car doing this, you can lose your permit, too. Don't ride along. We already covered the behaviors and mistakes that cause most crashes. This slide is about what to do if one happens anyway. The steps you take next can help save someone's life, and they also carry legal weight. Even careful drivers can end up in a collision, so you need to know what to do before it ever happens. First and most important, stop. Always. If anyone is hurt, call 911 right away. The fastest way to help an injured person is to get them care quickly. If no one is hurt, move your vehicle out of the out of traffic first, and then call 911. After that, exchange your license, registration, insurance, and address with everyone involved. If you hit a parked car and cannot find the owner, leave a note. Then there is reporting. If anyone is injured, report to law enforcement within 24 hours. And file form SR-1 with the Department of Motor Vehicles within 10 days if there is over $1,000 in damage or anyone is hurt. If you do not report, your license can be suspended. The The police will not file that DMV report for you. For the complete rules on what to do after a collision and how to report it, visit dmv.ca.gov. In this section, we are going to describe the next steps you need to take if you watch the e-bike safety lesson and this lesson to be eligible for a parking permit application at school. Here's what to do next. If you're seeking a parking permit, ensure you have followed the steps on the left. Fill out the parking permit application, watch the e-bike safety and the safer student driving lessons with your parent or guardian and have them sign the acknowledgement after you take the quiz, and submit everything to your school site administrator. The link to the quiz is on the slide and in the description of this video. You only get the permit once all steps are done, including the payment. If you're not seeking a permit, the four steps on the right still apply. Watch together, discuss honestly, and take the quiz to test yourself and commit to safe driving. The goal isn't a permit. The goal is making the drive safely every time and for everyone. If you have questions or inputs, reach out to Preeti Ahmed at the email shown below. Drive safe and look out for each other.