Keep the keys

By GREGORY K. MOFFAT, PH.D.
Child's Play

Just a few months ago, the Georgia legislature defeated a bill that would have raised the legal driving age for teens in our state from age 16 to 18. I don’t know all of the specifics of the proposed law, but I know that if the bill had passed, it probably would have saved lives.

Following vocal objections from the constituency, our legislature chose to keep the freedom of driving in the hands of our most dangerous and inexperienced drivers. There are only two reasons that I can think of that would have led parents to oppose raising the driving age — convenience (or inconvenience if they had to drive their children everywhere) and a desire to appease their children.

Now that school has started, parents of 16- and 17-year-old children will be asked for permission to drive to school, work, soccer practice, parties, and so forth. Before you relinquish the car keys, let me ask you to consider some reasons not to give your child unlimited access to a car.

First, as I have told my own children, driving a car is probably the most dangerous thing they will ever do. Driving is dangerous for all of us.

The roads are not only crowded with other drivers, but also road debris, pot holes, and other obstructions that create a challenge even for proficient drivers. Extra surprises like deer and stray animals as well as other drivers who are angry or aggressive make driving a very complicated task requiring great skill and maturity.
Second, teenagers are among the poorest and least skilled drivers. I know this is a broad generalization, but I wasn’t a good driver as a teenager and I don’t know any teenagers that I would fully trust to drive my children around.

Even very responsible and mature teens are limited in their ability to efficiently handle an automobile. That does not mean that they are all bad drivers, per se, but they have more accidents than the rest of us for a reason.

One reason is that they lack experience and it will take time for them to polish their driving skills. A second reason teens are poor drivers is that they are easily distracted. Even experienced drivers are at greater risk on the road when they are talking on cell phones or tuning the radio.

Teenagers do not attend as well as adults to the task of driving, especially if there are other teens in the car. Another reason they are poor drivers is that they do not understand the laws of physics. Again, even some experienced adult drivers fail to adjust for changes in road conditions, speed, condition of the automobile, and weather.

Finally, teens perceive themselves as invincible and that accidents only happen to other drivers. It is for all of these reasons that teenagers are poorer drivers than adults are.

One final reason to be cautious about giving your child unlimited access to an automobile is the fact that nationally, more teenagers will die in automobile related deaths than by any other means. I know we all want our children to live to be adults and yet our decisions sometimes do not demonstrate that. For example, just because a child reaches the age of 16 and one day, doesn’t mean he or she is prepared to drive or own a vehicle. We must make discriminative judgements.

I am not supposing that teens should never drive, but I do encourage parents to carefully evaluate their child’s level of maturity and responsibility as well as his or her skill behind the wheel.

Consider where they want to drive and with whom. Also consider whether they will be driving in daylight, at night, during inclement weather, or on roads that are hazardous.

As children improve in their skills and grow in maturity, they can earn the right to drive more places, more often and with a wider variety of passengers. Unpopular as these ideas may be, more children will live to see their twenties if we follow these precautions.

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