<p>DD 16 got her license in May. Since then she has scraped my fender backing out of the garage while trying to maneuver around another car in the driveway, ran over a raccoon and cracked part of the undercarriage, smacked the passenger mirror on a mailbox and had someone back into her in a parking lot. She has paid for all repairs except the parking lot scrape as it was completely covered by the other person’s insurance. The only time she had another kid in the car is when she hit the raccoon.</p>
<p>She took an extensive driver ed course and we spent long hours in the car with her while she was learning to the drive. Any suggestions about what else we can do besides continue to charge her for the incidents and continually remind her to be careful? </p>
<p>In my experience having a fender bender or two makes the young driver a more careful driver - it did for me anyway. I wouldn’t say that the raccoon and the parking lot accident were her fault, and the other two incidents seem to have to do with knowing the dimensions of the car in tight, slow speed situations. Does she have good depth perception? </p>
<p>She needs to slow down, careless because she is rushing.
She may be trying to get out of the driveway in a hurry and is misjudging distances.
If she drives to school, she needs to be out the door 10 minutes earlier than if you are driving her.
Or have her repark the car the night before to facing out so she doesn’t have to back out of the driveway in the morning.</p>
<p>Actually be glad she hit the raccoon. Too many drivers swerve to avoid animals and end up in incoming traffic or off the road. My granddad always said the dog will give, the tree wont - sounds mean but true!</p>
<p>I have had a few “incidents” (no accidents) getting in and out of tight spaces or backing up (before the advent of backup cameras). I think my problem is depth perception.</p>
<p>On a good note, I haven’t so much as been pulled over since summer 1990. :)</p>