Three of Dahlia Trujillo's four children had something happen to their cars in a high school parking lot. Now the Milton-based driving instructor wants local parents to take that risk seriously before the school year settles in.

Trujillo, who manages Drive Smart Georgia's Milton location at 850 Mayfield Road, said in an interview published Monday, Aug. 17, by the North Atlanta Star that the student lot is the single greatest danger zone around any high school.

"You have many new and inexperienced drivers arriving at approximately the same time and leaving together in the afternoon," Trujillo said. "Add tiredness, stress, passengers, pedestrians and general distraction, and the parking lot becomes a hot spot for minor crashes."

Her advice: parents should practice entering and exiting the school lot with their teen during busy drop-off and pickup periods, not just when the lot is empty.

Blind spots and busy roads

Trujillo, a former chemist who taught all four of her own children to drive before joining Drive Smart Georgia in July 2024, said inadequate mirror and blind-spot checks are among the most common mistakes she sees. Many teens learn in vehicles with blind-spot monitoring and grow dependent on the warning light rather than physically checking mirrors and looking over the shoulder.

For lane changes on Peachtree Parkway, State Bridge Road and McGinnis Ferry Road, she teaches the SMOG method: Signal, Mirrors, Over the shoulder, Go when safe. She also trains students to scan 10 to 12 seconds down the road. Beginning drivers often focus only four to six seconds ahead, which cuts their time to identify hazards and react.

Phones, curfews and Georgia law

Trujillo recommends teens activate Do Not Disturb or Driving Focus before leaving home and keep the phone out of reach until parked. Georgia's hands-free law prohibits drivers from holding or supporting a phone while operating a vehicle.

She also urges parents to set an earlier driving curfew than the law requires while a teen builds nighttime experience. National Safety Council data shows that while only about 10 percent of trips by 16- and 17-year-olds occur between 9 p.m. and midnight, 19 percent of their fatal crashes happen during that window.

Georgia's Class D provisional license already prohibits driving between midnight and 5 a.m. with no exceptions, according to the Georgia Department of Driver Services. That means no driving home from a late football game or work shift. Passenger restrictions also apply: for the first six months, only immediate family may ride along. In the second six months, one non-family passenger under 21 is allowed. After 12 months, up to three.

A community still grieving

The stakes are not abstract here. Three metro Atlanta high school students from Alpharetta and Cumming were killed in a crash in Franklin County, Florida, on April 7 while on spring break, according to Fox 5 Atlanta. A fourth teen from Alpharetta was transported to the hospital in critical condition. All four attended Horizon Christian Academy.

Motor-vehicle crashes remain the number one cause of preventable death for U.S. teens, with 2,565 teen occupant deaths recorded nationally in 2024, according to the National Safety Council.

Before handing over the keys

Trujillo advises families to put insurance information, emergency phone numbers and roadside-assistance contacts in the glove compartment before a teen drives alone. She also recommends new drivers leave home 10 to 15 minutes earlier than usual in heavy rain or darkness to reduce the temptation to speed.

Drive Smart Georgia's Milton location reopened in 2025 after closing in 2020. The company also operates an Alpharetta location at 5354 McGinnis Ferry Rd. Parents can reach the Milton office at (770) 628-7540.