As summer winds down and kids return to school, the National Road Safety Foundation is reminding parents of the role they play in making sure their teens are safe behind the wheel.

Car crashes are the leading cause of unintentional death and serious injury among young people. But parents can have an impact even just by talking to young drivers about distracted driving, speeding, having too many people in the car and wearing seat belts.

"The most important thing we can tell a teenager is to not think that they're invincible and that it can happen to them," Tammy Guido McGee, a traffic safety advocate, told WBAL-TV 11 News.

McGee's son, Connor, was a passenger who died in a car crash that also killed two others in the car. The driver was an unlicensed teenager.

"All three boys, gone in the blink of an eye, to something that was 100% preventable," McGee told WBAL-TV 11 News. "He should have never been driving. He should have never been allowed to do the things in a vehicle when you're unlicensed and underage."

McGee also reminds parents that kids learn what they live through, so it's important for parents not to drive distracted, to put down the phone and obey speed limits so youths don't pick up bad driving habits.