<p>D is 19 and has had her license for 3 years. In that time she’s had a photo red light ticket (right turn without a full stop at a red light), a roll-through the stop sign ticket, dented the bumper on our fence, dented the bumper by hitting another car parked in our driveway, backed into the bumper of another parked car and then today…clipped a vehicle while pulling our of her parking space. None of these instances are life threatening or high speed instances. And so far the only damage has luckily “:rolleyes:” been to her (well dh’s and my) vehicle. </p>
<p>Is this within the range of ‘normal’ for a young driver? I am trying to manage my own upset and not lay into her when she returns home later today.</p>
<p>… no it wasn’t a major accident, no one got hurt though it proved to be fairly costly to the insurance company. Yes, our rates went up. And yes, I am so grateful that was “all.”</p>
<p>My son had zero accidents between ages 16-21. Then when I exhaled he went through a number of cars. He’s finally kept a car (knocking on wood) and got it paid off. He wasn’t allowed to even look at our cars for a while.</p>
<p>You should just have your D pay for any insurance surcharge and deductible costs caused by her crashes and citations (ask your insurance agent what the price would be if she had a clean record so that you know what the difference is).</p>
<p>Even for a new driver, 4 crashes and 2 non-crash citations within 3 years is a lot.</p>
<p>Our S has had one accident to date–it was a zinger as he was turning left while the motorcycle was going straight. Somehow S thought he had the right of way! Fortunately, no one was harmed but the cycle. As far as we know, no accidents since. D has scratched the bumper of our neighbor’s car & ours once when she proved how close you can (and should NOT) park when parallel parking. S has been driving now for 7 years & D for about 5. They both prefer not to drive and have not logged all that many miles.</p>
<p>My sister says that each of her girls has had at least one fairly costly to repair fender bender but that was it. My brother’s kids have each had one or two minor fender benders but that is about it.</p>
<p>I would definitely be upset about the tickets and the number of fender benders you cite. Does your child have any idea why so many? Is she distracted when they happen? Is she the only one in the car, or are there others distracting her? Thinking about other things? What is the lighting like? When were her eyes last checked? How is her depth perception? Those are the things that would pass through my mind with that # of incidents. I would require that she pay for more driving lessons if she wants to continue driving and restrict the driving hours & # of passengers she can carry–sounds like her mind is not focused on her driving.</p>
<p>I imagine these incidents have caused your premiums to climb–is she paying for the increase in premiums?</p>
<p>I would say that’s pretty normal. From my experience with my 2 kids’ friends, nearly all of them had an accident or moving violation within the first couple of years. My d had about the same amount of infraction and accidents as your d within similar time frame. I was so happy when she left for college with no car.</p>
<p>I totalled 2 cars by the first anniversary of my license! First one, I pulled out of a side street into 3 lane divided highway and another teenage driver didn’t change lanes and t-boned me. (accident broke my mom’s collarbone and I got a failure to yield right away). Second one, I was waiting for a red light outside my HS and got read-ended by a guy in pick-up who claimed his brakes failed. (cops let him drive away - never understood that) </p>
<p>My issue is not D1, but DH that doesn’t seem to comprehend size of our large minivan and has hit 2 neighbors’ cars backing our of the driveway and took out rear passenger door on parking lot pillar.</p>
<p>Each time D was in the vehicle by herself. She has 20/20 vision with all other vision tests showing no problems. So far there has not been an insurance premium increase because the damage has only been to our vehicle, the red light ticket was dismissed and she attended traffic school for the second ticket. D and I are in agreement that she will be paying for today’s damages.</p>
<p>Boychild rear ended a car and got rear ended all in one week. Then he drove into a snow bank at the end of our driveway and damaged the front bumper which had just been repaired. </p>
<p>He hasn’t even had his license one year. </p>
<p>I can’t wait until he’s off at college and doesn’t have a car.</p>
<p>My son scratched another car in a parking lot a few months after he got his license. Stuff happens I know… but the bad part was he was busy getting ready for a music camp weekend and “forgot” to tell us. </p>
<p>A few days later the lady called me to ask about it. Obviously I was NOT pleased. (We made him pay half. If he had been honest, we would have been more forgiving.) Here’s the really funny part. The lady thought that DH was an Allstate agent. Evidentally she asked him to read the name off the Allstate card (assuming he knew she wanted the Allstate agent name), and he read the policyholder name.</p>
<p>Well, Dietz, at least it hasn’t yet impacted your insurance rates. I would NOT let her have passengers except maybe you &/or her dad until she hits fewer things, for the sake of everyone. New drivers can take a while to figure things out and it sounds like perhaps she is not great at spatial perception, even with her 20/20 vision. I admit I’m not nearly as good at it as H, S & D (tho D scraped the cars together, not me).</p>
<p>Hopefully you’re not having your D have a car in college? The time may help mellow her some. I know I’m a better & safer driver than I was when I started & also better than when I constantly had too many things on my mind. Could your D practice her parking & driving with trash cans and/or cones in a desserted parking lot? It really might be helpful, so she can get a better feel for the size of her vehicle and not bump it around so much. </p>
<p>It doesn’t sound like the above courses would help this particular driver stop hitting other solid objects with the vehicle, but rather it sounds more like it covers steering & braking instead of parking.</p>
<p>Hopefully she will NOT get any future traffic citations (S got a few for parking violation tags on campus but no moving violations, which are more dangerous).</p>
<p>dietz, all of these accidents seem to me to be related to poor spatial visualization skills - basically knowing where your car ends. I think a lot of it is experience - the more you drive, the better you know know your car. Some kids are good right from the get-go and don’t have the chain of fender-benders when they are inexperienced, most people figure it out eventually.</p>
<p>What kind of car is she driving? Maybe she needs a smaller vehicle.</p>
<p>The tickets aren’t that serious from a safety perspective, as long as there was no danger. In a wide open intersection where you can see that there is no one else there in any direction, does it really make it safer if you come to a complete stop vs. rolling through at 5 mph? Same with the right turn on red. Hopefully she has learned her lesson though.</p>
<p>Not sure how a photo red light camera would know that she didn’t come to a complete stop.</p>
<p>In my state, moving violations for a kid under 18 come with a 90 day suspension and a $500 reinstatement fee, it makes my kids very timid on the road.</p>
<p>D2 has a similar issue with spatial awareness and our vehicle. In her case, it seems that gas stations come alive and aggressively leap into the bumper of the car. She’s a “good” driver, in that she’s careful and alert, but she does seem to keep attracting inanimate objects to her…</p>
<p>My hunch is that she can’t visually track where the edges of the car are, because of the way that the seats are positioned (very low, and she’s petite). I’m hoping she lands in a major city where she won’t need driving skills!</p>
<p>NRE…she drives my Highlander the older and smaller version. I agree that the fender bender cases are a spatial perception issue. The red light camera ticket is in a well known ‘trap’ area. It’s a right hand turn into a mall parking lot, now cross traffic danger what so ever. She rolled through the stop sign in front of our local high school - also a well know ticketing area. One of her fender benders was with a …lotus! You know, those low sitting cars that you can’t see out the rear window. There was absolutely no mark on our Highlander. However, since a lotus is a ‘composite’ body the damage may not be visible. The owner of that vehicle did not file a report for 6 weeks and fault was unclear so luckily we were not responsible for a 10K bumper!</p>
<p>Your daughter seems irresponsible and careless. Does she fully understand the cost of owning and maintaining an automobile or the potentially deadly consequences of reckless driving? Seems like she doesn’t care.</p>
<p>…D2 has a similar issue with spatial awareness and our vehicle. In her case, it seems that gas stations come alive and aggressively leap into the bumper of the car.</p>
<p>I can just see the conspiratorial looks on the gas pump faces…waiting for the best moment to attack “;)”</p>
As far as we know, no accidents since. D has scratched the bumper of our neighbor’s car & ours once when she proved how close you can (and should NOT) park when parallel parking. S has been driving now for 7 years & D for about 5. They both prefer not to drive and have not logged all that many miles.</p>