ADHD and Driving

Know the traits

If your teen has ADHD, you and he must understand that the core symptoms of inattention and impulsivity (the inability to inhibit behavior) have serious implications for driving safety. It takes only one occasion of not paying attention or acting on an impulse while driving a car to have devastating consequences.

Two of the most common traffic violations for people with ADHD are speeding and failure to yield. When teens don’t pay attention (they “space out” or daydream, or are distracted), they’re more likely to exceed the speed limit or miss a stop sign. Many teens with ADHD lose track of time and are often late. Mistakenly, they think they can make up the time by driving faster, which can cause them to lose control of their vehicles.

Being impulsive means acting first and thinking about it later—or perhaps not at all. So even if your teen knows the rules, he may take the chance that he can get by anyway. An example of impulsive driving is cutting around another car stopped at a stop sign, driving up on the curb to avoid waiting, or using the car for thrills or to show off, such as drag racing or towing a friend on a skateboard.

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