As the parent of a newly licensed teen driver, I share how the 100 Safest Days of Summer campaign is helping families prevent distracted driving, encourage safe choices, and save lives.

As parents, we guide our children down the road of life—both literally and figuratively. We read them stories, teach them songs and their ABCs, hold their hands as they take their first steps, and cheer them on through every milestone. Somewhere along the way, parenting teaches us something too: how to let go.

For me, a self-described control freak, that may be the hardest lesson of all.

While we cannot control every decision our children make, we can give them access to information, tools, and conversations that help them make safer choices. That’s why I became involved with We Save Lives, a coalition dedicated to preventing traffic fatalities through education, awareness, and advocacy.

For my family, Memorial Day has always been a solemn occasion. As a Marine Corps family, we pause to honor those who made the ultimate sacrifice in service to our country. Yet Memorial Day also marks the unofficial start of summer—and what safety advocates call the “100 Deadliest Days of Summer.”

As the parent of a newly licensed teenage driver, that reality weighs heavily on me.

When summer began, my daughter and I talked about what a Southern California summer should be: beach days, camping trips in the mountains, ice cream stops in the desert, concerts, late nights with friends, and freedom from school schedules. Unfortunately, summer is also the most dangerous season for teen drivers.

From Memorial Day through Labor Day, fatal crashes involving teen drivers rise dramatically. More time on the road, increased freedom, packed vehicles full of friends, distracted driving, speeding, failure to wear seat belts, and impaired driving all contribute to the heightened risk.

According to We Save Lives, 7,316 people died in teen driver-related crashes during the summer months between 2012 and 2021—an average of 812 deaths each year. Nearly half of all teen driver crash fatalities occur during these 100 days.

Those statistics are sobering, but they are not inevitable.

Organizations such as We Save Lives, the National Road Safety Foundation, and Impact Teen Drivers are working to transform the “100 Deadliest Days” into the “100 Safest Days of Summer.” Their message is simple: education and conversation can save lives.

Our family started with honest discussions around the dinner table. We reviewed the rules of the road she studied for her driver’s license test, but we also talked about the real-world situations that are not always covered in a handbook. We discussed the importance of always wearing a seat belt, limiting passengers, understanding social host laws, never driving under the influence of alcohol, marijuana, or medications that impair judgment, and choosing to spend the night at a friend’s house rather than drive home exhausted.

I was encouraged to learn that my daughter is already influencing her peers. She has encouraged friends to add the hashtag #ButNotWhileDriving to their mobile device signatures and has shown them how to activate their phones’ “Do Not Disturb While Driving” settings.

Together, we reviewed and signed the official My Summer Safety Pledge. It felt empowering rather than preachy because it focused on making positive choices rather than imposing rules.

The pledge commits participants to:

• Staying focused behind the wheel and avoiding all distractions.
• Speaking up when something feels unsafe as a passenger.
• Never driving under the influence of alcohol, cannabis, fatigue, distraction, or any other impairment.
• Always wearing a seat belt on every ride.
• Driving at safe speeds and sharing the road responsibly with pedestrians, cyclists, and e-bike riders.
• Being a leader who encourages friends to make safe choices.

The pledge concludes with a powerful statement: “I choose to make these the 100 Safest Days of Summer.”

As much as I trust my daughter, I still worry. Every time my phone buzzes with a text saying she’s on her way home, my heart skips a beat. Parents of teen drivers know this feeling well.

Organizations like We Save Lives are transforming statistics into stories and education into action, helping families have conversations that truly matter.

If you have a young driver in your family, I encourage you to visit 100SafestDaysofSummer.org and take the pledge together. More importantly, model the behavior you hope to see. Teens may tune out lectures, but they pay attention to what we do.

Our family has experienced enough grief and loss to understand how precious time together truly is. By participating in the 100 Safest Days of Summer campaign, we are choosing a safer path forward—one built on education, responsibility, and love.

Our sons and daughters deserve every one of those 100 days of summer memories. And they deserve the opportunity to grow up, tell those stories, and someday share them with their own children.

Victoria Carlborg is a California community advocate, mother of an 18-year-old daughter, spouse of an Iraq War veteran, and caregiver to a Vietnam veteran, all of whom were in a car crash by a suspected impaired driver.