“Bill would ID teen drivers” is a headline in Friday’s JS. Rep. David Leitch would have any driver under 18 who has a learners permit or graduated driver’s license would be required to have a sign attached to their vehicle indicating they are a new driver. Rep. Leitch says he got this idea from Metamora resident Amy De Fretias. He says the signs would need to removable as everyone in the family may be using the same car.
This is another attempt to curb the teen “killing fields” and it may have a reverse effect of endangering the young and inexperienced. There is no solid proof that this costly system would work. Mrs. DeFreitas says the signs would help inexperienced teen drivers by making other motorists more alert and patient. Most of us who talk about the way teens and other young people drive realize that these kids are passing us on the roadways, often far in excess of the speed limit. How can we be patient with them when many times all we see is a car with a person in the driver’s seat, a cell phone to their ear and then we see the rear end of their car going many miles over the speed limit, weaving in and out and disappearing in the distance? Also, what’s to stop the teen from removing the sign as soon as they are out of the parent’s sight, especially if it’s easily removable? A lot of these kids have alcohol content in their systems and yet it is illegal for them to drink. Does that stop all of them? I think not.
Tazewell County is trying educational programs; similar programs have been going on for 25 years or more while the problems keep growing. Tazewell Sheriff Robert Huston says 805 speeding citations were issued over a 14 day period in February Two citations were given to driver’s exceeding 100 miles per hour and two to Olympia High School students driving over 90 miles an hour near the school. Sheriff Huston sys he finds this quite alarming. I would regret having lived this long only to be killed or maimed by someone who thinks he or she is invincible but is almost totally inexperienced to drive a powerful motor vehicle on any road bed at any speed.
Perhaps some schools are using simulated computer training such as used in pilot training. If not, I wonder why not? If they are, I would like to know who the schools are and the successes. If deemed too costly, I suggest comparing the cost of the right kind of training to the cost each driver killed or maimed. Then add in the emotional cost to the family, the community, our safety and highway departments and our medical care systems plus the rise in insurance rates often distributed to all insured. The cost to all concerned of an accident that injures or kills is not measurable.
I believe we have a growing misguided compassion toward our youth, a failure to understand what the true meanings of freedom are. Too much speed, violence and mayhem as an acceptable way of life; this real and mostly fiction that is constantly displayed in all forms of media. The inability of people of all ages to separate facts from fiction, the attitude of kids to say to their parents “we know what we are doing”, when later on if they make it into mature adulthood, they will often admit that they “thought they did but really didn’t”, add to the problem of invincibility. It’s trite to say we adults often lack the common sense and the fortitude to take stronger actions to prevent disasters. Look around and see what is happening, 16,000 deaths attributed to alcohol out of 41,000 vehicular deaths yearly on our highways, not counting the millions injured or maimed; an article in the WSJ on 6/03/05 states that “Teenage drivers are involved in fatal crashes at twice the rate of drivers overall, and have a fatality rate four times that of drivers ages 25-69.) (Figures from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration)
Lastly, there is a growing misunderstanding that with freedom and self-esteem, comes responsibility.
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