A solution to wreckless teenagers...

[motormouth23]

Sadly a friend passed away last night after breaking his neck in a car crash. Although the driver wasn't officially speeding i think it would be fair to assume he was driving too fast for the conditions (nutoriously dangerous road, car full of mates, damp, leafy conditions, tight bend etc) as the car managed to drift into the wrong side of the road, hit a rock, flip on its roof, roll over, hit a tree and come to rest in a ditch.

Having posted a smiliar message on other forums it seems almost common that such incidents take place. However i have a slightly alternative solution to preventing such tragedies.

i think driving is very much like drinking. In europe young people are gently introuced to wine and beer from a young age. They are tought its social values rather than its slightly more sinister capabilities. In the UK, however, we are tought that wine and beer are bad.

This then makes them a form of rebellion and a tool of immaturity/naivity. People drink to look cool, to show off, to flick the finger at their parents. They dont see it as an element of socialising or, god forbid, actually enjoying the taste.

The same applies to driving. Increasing the age isnt going to stop people wanting to show off to their mates. What will change their attitudes is to introduce them to driving at a much younger age. Allow them to get behind the wheel, learn the power of a car.

I also think showing them the inside of a wrecked car, allowing them to sit in it, feel how spooky it is, may also make them think twice.

By taking away the element of rebellion and machoism, by making driving second nature, I think lives could be saved.

[sayerbloke]

Some very reasonable points in there . Certainly getting people interested in cars at an early age will help in a number of ways.

Sorry to hear about your friend.

[sexellent]

My friend you are exactly right. Consider teens in Amsterdam... they tend to think smoking pot isn't that great or wonderful, because there is no rebellion in the act, which kills the thrill. The stuff is legal... I'm not advocating legalizing pot here, but see the logic in what you're saying. Children should be educated about the pleasures and bonuses of safe driving, how much easier life is with a car, etc. It's the same in the states as it is in the UK, apparently.

Sorry to hear of your loss.

[PGonzalezS]

Please accept my condolences.

I don't think early exposure to driving (or alcohol for that matter) would be particularly helpful. Mainly because youngsters are naturally unaware of danger and of the consequences of things going wrong. But I see your point. And I think we basically agree that what is needed in order to train safe drivers (and drinkers) is some sort of previous "safe experimentation".

Sorry to use myself as an example, but I was not introduced to alcohol at a young age. Actually, I didn't start drinking until I was in my early twenties. Nevertheless, I've never used alcohol for its "sinister capabilities", which only goes to show that early exposure is not necessary nor desirable. In fact, I attribute my positive use of alcohol today to the fact that I came to it relatively late in life. I was able experiment with it safely, without no peer pressure or any hormonal urge to make a display of machoism. I learned where my limits are without losing consciousness or throwing up all over the bloody place.

Similarly, as regards driving, I would make it compulsory for anybody wanting to obtain a driving license (irrespective of age) to go through several hours of practical training on road safety, experimenting slippery road conditions and mechanical failures, performing avoidance manoeuvres on a dry/wet road and seeing by themselves the effects of not checking tyre pressures. The odd physics lesson wouldn't go amiss.

This of course is expensive and its effects would not be immediate (no political benefits to reap), so Governments all over Europe resort instead to speed cameras. Also, (future) drivers would strongly oppose this procedure for being too lengthy and expensive for them, and (since the risk of failing the tests would be much, much higher) for interfering with their right to drive a car. You and me, however, know that those drivers are forgetting that driving is not a right. It is a privilege.

[sexellent]

Isn't it in Japan where you can only begin driving when you're 18? Not convenient, but really young drivers (15-16) are just that much more dangerous.

[PGonzalezS]

That's the case also in Spain, sexellent. I got my driving license when I was 18.

[RickTheUncivil]

i reckon your all right, and if you put the ideas together you may have a winning formula. I agree that raising the age for driving licence would be a good way of reducing road deaths, i have done it myself and i jave seen others do it, teenagers (especially but not exclusively, lads) drive like morons. i was the best driver in the world a week after i passed my test, and it wasnt until a few very near misses and a couple of little crashes and a few run-ins with the old bill that i started to drive more maturely. i think thats the key, maturity - if you learn to drive at 18 or 21 you are (in theory) a little more mature and so less likely to drive like a prat than at 16.

However, the other approach is also a great way - educate people from a younger age about the hazards etc of driving, show them mangled cars and grim images of crash scenes, it may help deter tham from driving too fast. teach people as part of the test about hazardous conditions and how to cope with them, it should always have been part of it in my opinion.

Dont get me wrong, i enjoy driving fast, i always have, but i now know that i was stupid, and now i have a much better understanding of the dangers i drive fast, but safe.

I think the only problem here is the only way you learn these things really is by your own experience, and relying on age to bring experience doesnt really work on its own.

[sexellent]

Very true... they do need to see the consequences as well, that only makes sense. There are good steps to take, like raising the minimum age, more thorough driving schools (like time on a course with cones before hitting the roads), and all that will help. Like you said, experience is the biggest thing, but if you can have a bit more maturity and education before that experience, it could only help.

Oooooor the governments could build a bunch of those magnetic rail trains that go 10,000mph and are always in service by robots!

[RickTheUncivil]

forget what i said, go for the trains idea

[mactheknife]

A lot of good points here, but it seems however much you TELL some people something is bad for them, illegal, immoral, whatever, they will go and do it anyway. Look at the number of 30- and 40-somethings who are STILL drink-driving, and will lose their licences over Christmas, and moan in mitigation they had only had two pints, they weren't speeding, they didn't have far to go, blah-blah. I don't drink alcohol, I respect the urban areas, including the new 20mph areas, and have never had an accident in my 25 years of driving. Something that made a big impression on me, soon after I passed my test, was a Police display in a shopping mall, showing the location, and photos of crashed cars, and details of those who had died in a series of local, recent accidents, and the factors which had been concluded as causal. Young drivers, predominantly male, high-speed, alcohol and late-nights figured highly. Almost invariably, seat-belts had not been worn, and on display was a little ramped track with a Ford Escort seat on it. You sat on the seat, beltless, and they would start your ride. The seat would roll down the track, stopping abruptly from just 5mph. To me as an on-looker, it seemed absolutely no big-deal. When I actually rode it, the sudden stop at the end felt absolutely brutal! I felt I was being catapaulted forward, out of control, and certainly way out of my comfort-zone... I have ALWAYS worn my seat-belt since, though I doubt they are still running the trolley, exposing themselves to 'Oww, WHIP-LASH! Nurse, my lawyer!' liabilities.

Shortly afterwards, a friend wanted some headlights and a grille for his BMW, so we went to a specialist breakers. Of the hundreds of BMW's we saw there, the vast majority had run into the back of something, with varying degrees of damage to the car, and often the occupants. Some had obviously had blood hosed out of them. Really, so few had been rear-ended, hardly any side-swiped. It left us concluding that BMW's are either short on brakes, (not the ones I've driven!) or their drivers are usually too agggressive. He didn't get his lights and grille. There weren't any undamaged ones available. For my friend, this was his message to slow down, and realise there are no prizes for getting anywhere early. Maybe it takes one distinct, scary, disturbing, memorable episode, early in a drivng career, to instill the care to stay alive?