Fresno resident Amy Loftus" considers herself a safe driver, especially when her kids are in the car. She told KSEE 24, "I try to make sure they have their seat belts on and just the common sense stuff. I try to keep the music down. I'm trying to teach my sixteen year old how to drive."
Her son, Nathan, says with his dad, it is a different story. He explained, "My dad drives crazy! He swerves!"
He also claimed that his grandfather is a better driver.
"I feel safer," he said while laughing.
A new study shows this may actually be the case. Researchers found that kids are less likely to get injured in car accidents when a grandparent is driving. This, even though parents are more likely to use child safety restraints correctly. Researchers looked at five years worth of car crash data involving more than 200,000 children. More than 1,300 kids suffered injuries. Among those children, more than 160 were riding with grandparent drivers. Nearly 3,000 were in the car with parent drivers. Researchers say the results were unexpected. Loftus says she is not surprised, at least when it comes to her family.
"Their grandma's very safe. We have pretty good grandparents, or I wouldn't let them drive my children around," said Loftus.
As for why grandparents might be safer drivers, researchers think it is because they may take extra caution when driving with their grandchildren in the car.
The study was published on Monday, in the Journal of Pediatrics.
TXT 24
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