Column 62 for December 3, 2000

I remember driver training well, even though it was almost 39 years ago. Mr. Kehoe was the teacher, and we drove a ’61 or ’62 Plymouth with a 3-speed on the column. I thought of it as a tank. Dual controls, so he had a steering wheel, brakes, and clutch too. Thirty hours of classroom study, and then 6 hours behind the wheel. If you wanted to drive, you had to have the training.

Why do I bring this up? Because, once again, another governor of Georgia is politically concerned with the high teen driver fatality rate. Over the past year I’ve argued against Governor Barnes misguided educational proposals with all the words I could muster. Regarding teen drivers, however, I happen to agree with him. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the crash rate for 16 and 17-year-old drivers is 227 percent higher than drivers over age 24.

Many rural legislators, such as Tom Murphy, fight every change increasing the requirements for a drivers license, saying such things as "parents are anxious for teenagers to help with driving chores", "family farmers depend on 16-year-olds to help get the crops to market", and "it’s too hard for young people to get to and from schools and jobs."

Baloney! Parents need to quit giving their 16-year-olds cars! Parents need to stay involved in the lives of their young teens to the extent that they must provide any needed transportation that is really required. It seems to me that most teens work for the sole purpose to make their car payments! And then most of them still have to be subsidized by their parents anyway. What a Catch-22! "Gotta have a car so I can get to work…" "Gotta have a job so I can pay for my car…" A lot of these kids need to stay home and do their homework!

Any child attending the school in their district has available bus transportation. Most of the kids I see driving to school do so for no other reason than to "look good" to their peers. We can rationalize all we want, but they should be riding the bus. Parents should pick them up after band or sports practice. Think of the millions and millions of gallons of imported oil required to support this vane addiction! We’re paying for the buses anyway, right?

I’m afraid, very afraid. I worry about children talking about how fast their new Mustang, Acura, or Eclipse can go. I’m worried about the annual "sacrifice" of teen lives that seems to happen, especially every spring, around prom time. Governor Barnes is right. We need to raise the age for driver’s licenses to at least 17, and we need to make driver training mandatory. Parents can’t teach their children to drive with nearly the same objectivity as an impartial instructor. Parents tend to pass on their own bad habits too. We need to have an after school driver’s training program at the parent expense. Parents need to again accept the responsibility for their children. A "license" in any field is supposed to indicate a certain level of skill and proficiency has been attained. Let’s make driving the same, and not just with tests in a parking lot either.

I’m not against kids. I want them to live the fullest, most fantastic lives possible. It’s up to us to give them that chance. Why not give all drivers a test every ten years or so too? We can practice what we preach, that’s a good thing isn’t it?

Keep the shiny side up, and the greasy side down. tomiswho@mindspring.com