Whether it is their years of driving or their years of experience dealing with children, a recent study has found that children are usually safer riding with their grandparents than their parents. The study, which was conducted by State Farm Insurance, found that children riding in a car with their grandparents had a fifty percent lower chance of being injured in a car crash than children riding in a car with their own parents. This study was based on data from car crashes from 2003 thru 2007, and the children in the study were youths 15 years old or younger.
It is not clear yet why grandparents are safer drivers than parents, but if I had to take a guess, I would say there are two reasons why grandparents do a better job driving children. First, grandparents have driven with children in the car for much longer than new parents. A new parent might glance over their shoulder at the slightest sound of discomfort whereas a veteran parent would know the difference between whining and real trouble. Secondly, grandparents have worse hearing. Now, this might seem like a huge disadvantage as a driver, and it certainly can hurt a driver's performance. We aren't endorsing intentionally blocking out sounds while driving. When it comes to kids, however, sometimes it is nice to “turn down the hearing aid” and pretend not to hear the kids yelling, “He's on my side of the car!” or “She took my Nintendo DS!”
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