<p>[Teen</a> dies after chase ends in crash - Salt Lake Tribune](<a href=“http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_8375964]Teen”>The Salt Lake Tribune - Utah News, Sports, Religion & Entertainment)
This one happened on the road leading to my house. The road was closed for 3 hours, news helicopters circling above my head. They were coming back from HS basketball game I believe. I could see lots of young people crying and hugging each other.
The girl was only 17. Are you letting your 17 year olds ride in cars with same age friends?</p>
<p>Basically what you’re asking is do we let our kids lead normal lives of hanging out with friends, etc.</p>
<p>Yes, I did (they’re in college now). We can’t shelter them, as much as we want to. We have a graduated driver’s license process in our state, and for most 17 year olds, there are few restrictions. That being said, D2 has a friend who I know can be a wild driver, and I have strongly pleaded with her (using all parental guilt I can muster) not to ever ride with him - that if they’re going somewhere for her to be the driver. </p>
<p>I am so sorry this has happened to you… I say to you, because with it being on your road, it will be painful reminder everytime you pass it, as opposed to those who live elsewhere. But I’m also so very sorry for your community. There just is no explanation for this kind of tragedy - we’ve had several in our community over the years.</p>
<p>my 17 year old does ride with her friends- however- usually they take the city bus & the few girls that do drive- are good drivers- however- I do realize accidents happen and many happen from inexperience.</p>
<p>There have been many accidents in our area recently as well- yesterday one closed several lanes of the freeway as I was trying to get to school & this morning another one in same area.
I don’t know how some of these people get their license!
[url=<a href=“http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/352883_crash28.html]Reckless”>http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/352883_crash28.html]Reckless</a> driver causes two accidents, commuter nightmare<a href=“I%20also%20think%20cars%20should%20be%20inspected%20regularly,%20I%20don’t%20think%20people%20have%20good%20tires%20or%20brakes%20and%20that%20contributes%20to%20accidents%20as%20well”>/url</a></p>
<p>It sounds like the accident was caused not by " inexperience" but reckless driving- thats a shame- I wonder if the driver is being charged?</p>
<p>“Basically what you’re asking is do we let our kids lead normal lives of hanging out with friends, etc.”</p>
<p>There are places in this country where kids lead normal lives and hang out with their friends without driving everywhere. If you choose to live in a place where it’s “abnormal” to walk, bike, or take the train, that’s fine, but it’s a choice you make, not a natural law.</p>
<p>We moved to the city after we started our family to have better access to activities by walking/public transportation.
I grew up in the burbs & had experienced the death/severe injuries of many friends /acquaintances in auto accidents.
Lots of roads- no lights.
However- the schools are lower quality in the city- cost of living per sq ft much higher- really a tradeoff. ( the public transportation isn’t too great either- a 15 min ride in a car can mean an 1 & 1/2 hr bus ride inc transfer)
I also doubt if I knew then what I know now about the schools- if I would have decided to move to the city- it has been a nightmare.</p>
<p>I think that we can make controled choices and assume some risks without keeping our kids in a box. Life is risk- and we don’t have to make dumb choices- but we can’t also protect them against everything.</p>
<p>For instance right now my daughter is in Ghana. I had a lot of anxiety before her trip- a lot.
Still, I wasn’t going to hold her back because of my own issues.
I also found out as much as I could before she went.</p>
<p>Parents can do the same, but I see some of them making choices that are easy for them, not calling to see if parents will be home during a “party”, not getting to know their kids friends & saying things like “that’s what I did when I was their age & I turned out OK”</p>
<p>Well dumb luck apparently counts for something- but I wouldn’t rely on it for my kids.</p>
<p>“Basically what you’re asking is do we let our kids lead normal lives of hanging out with friends, etc.”</p>
<p>Our son is eighteen and even though we have no public transportation, he has no interest in driving. He tells his grandparents it’s because we drive on the left, because driving while drinking is legal here, and because there are many inebriated tourists on the roads. If pressed he’ll admit that he doesn’t want to assume the responsibility for the safety of others that driving entails. He won’t ride with teenage friends because he thinks their inexperience makes them a risky choice. Nevertheless, our son thinks he leads a “normal life.”</p>
<p>I placed limits on my kids in the first yr of driving, basically because it is the law and I cannot afford the tickets and insurance increases .
In NJ, they can have one friend at a time until they turn 18.</p>
<p>I am a stickler for not speeding, and I have passed my kids, obeying the speed limit with a trail of cars behind them, so I am confident that they respect that rule. Plus, I told them that if they are ticketed, the car is mine.</p>
<p>So scary when you read the news of all of the teen car accidents lately. Seems to be a lot in our area the last few months too.</p>
<p>My daughter is an excellent driver – better than I am, but we still don’t allow her to have friends in the car or to be a passenger in theirs. She doesn’t have a car at school, so that’s fine, but at home she must be solo.</p>
<p>Our D did not get her license until 18, and has never driven friends. She still prefers to be driven places, than drive herself. Our sons got their licenses earlier, but weren’t allowed to take passengers, and weren’t allowed to ride with other teens unless they first called us and cleared it with us. We were a lot stricter than most other parents around here.</p>
<p>S1 is only 15, but a lot of his friends already are 16 and driving. So far, he’s only ridden with one classmate, a 17yo junior, and her grandmother was in the car at the time, so I was’t too worried. He’s got a good sense of who is a bad driver and who is good, and he won’t get in a car with a knucklehead.</p>
<p>We have the graduated drivers license also. They can get a license at 17, but they cannot have more than one other person in the car under 21 and unrelated to the driver. They also have to be off the streets between midnight and 6 am, I believe. Now if they would only enforce the law!</p>
<p>In Ontario we have graduated licensing. The first license is a G1, and is equivalent to a US permit - you get it at 16. Then, after 8 or 12 months (8 if you go to driving school) you get the G2, which is a full license with some restrictions (no more than 1 <19 for the first 6 months with the license, .00 BAC limit, can’t drive from 12 AM - 5 AM for the first 6 months). Then a G, with no restrictions.</p>
<p>My parents have let me drive my friends, let my friends drive me, etc., including on long (>5 hour) trips. They know I’m a safe driver; they know my friends are safe drivers. I have better reaction speed than they (parents and friends) do, and am also quicker thinking - I’ve avoided at least one accident, caused by another driver’s boneheaded move, that they didn’t even see coming (they were in the car).</p>
<p>One must always be careful with teens, but it is fallacious to assume all teens are bad drivers, or that all adults are good drivers. There are plenty of good teen drivers and a lot of atrocious adults.</p>
<p>In Texas you get a learners permit at 15 and a full license at 16. Teen death by auto is fairly routine.</p>
<p>I’m so sorry to hear about the fatal accident in your community, Kelowna. My heart goes out to the families involved. </p>
<p>A relevant article that addresses your Q:</p>
<p>[Laying</a> Down the Law for Your Teen Driver](<a href=“http://www.edmunds.com/ownership/safety/articles/121328/article.html]Laying”>http://www.edmunds.com/ownership/safety/articles/121328/article.html)</p>
<p>I drive my friends really frequently, but I am very strict about several things:</p>
<p>-You don’t wear a seatbelt, you’re not riding in my car.
-Don’t talk to me or try to distract me…I dont’ care if there’s normal conversation, but nothing that will take my focus away from the road.
-I NEVER eat while I’m driving, unless it’s like french fries or something that only requires one hand, and even then I’ll only eat at stoplights.
-I’m the only one that ever drives my car, I don’t care if you do have a license.
-I almost never talk on my cell phone while driving (no one’s perfect). However, I NEVER text while I’m driving. That is too ridiculously dangerous to even attempt.</p>
<p>A lot of the teen drivers at my school are overly cautious because of what happened our tenth grade year (we’re seniors now, so two years ago):</p>
<p>A young boy our age was riding his bike and had the green light (and the “walk” signal) at a crosswalk. He was being safe, wore a helmet and everything.</p>
<p>A car was sitting parallel to him, waiting to turn right. A car going perpendicular to him blew the light, hit the car waiting to turn. The car waiting to turn spun and hit the boy, and the way that he landed he was almost instantly braindead. They took him off of life support two days later and he died. He was fifteen.</p>
<p>It’s funny how even though I wasn’t incredibly close with him, I feel his absence in all of our senior activities. And none of us who drive will ever run even a yellow light if we have time to stop due to this incident. We’re going to give him a whole page in the yearbook due to the fact that had this not happened, he would be graduating with us. 
We also want to wear black ribbons on our gowns at graduation.</p>
<p>Reading the article, I think California comes pretty close. We get our learner’s permit at 15 and a half, and for the six months until we turn 16, we have to drive 50 hours plus another ten at night (it might be included, the law is kinda confusing), and we cannot drive by ourselves. If we have a passenger who is under 20, we must have a CA licensed adult over the age of 25 in the passenger seat.</p>
<p>For the first year (yes, year) after you get your full license, you cannot drive passengers under the age of 20 and you cannot drive from 11 PM to 5 AM.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>You can drive your siblings if your parents write a note says you can. You can drive beyond 11 PM if you are on your way back from work.</p>
<p>Florida you get your permit at 15 then license at 16 with the only restrictions being that you can’t drive during the middle of the night unless your going to/from work. That rule is hardly enforced though, and driving is the norm for everyone basically on their 16 birthdays. My parents wouldn’t let me ride with other kids for awhile, but they slowly let me ride with certain people they trusted to limited places (i.e. school to practice). And my parents only let me drive within a certain radius of our house. I actually haven’t driven anywhere more than an hour away from my house except for one time, and this is three years later. Not that those rules apply to me anymore though.</p>
<p>I went to high school in Texas, and I can say that the graduated licensing rules were loosely followed at best. I also knew the family of one of our students who died (along with her friend) in a car wreck :(, though I think it was more a matter of pure bad luck than the fault of the driver.</p>
<p>The graduated licensing law in Massachusetts is the best thing our state has done in years. Kids get a permit at 16, license 6 months later, but for the first 6 months they can’t drive anyone else under the age of 18 except a family member. At first people thought it was a joke, but now most parents I know do enforce the law (or at least try to). Kids now refer to the day when they’ll be “legal” - meaning, legal to drive their friends around. I haven’t heard statistics but I it seems like the number of teen driving deaths has dropped significantly since the law was passed and parents bought into it.</p>
<p>To the OP - are they going to press charges against the driver of the “pursuing” car? Seems like they should, since it was his “clipping the corner” of the victim’s car that sent it spinning into oncoming traffic.</p>
<p>Part of the success of a graduated license is the parents enforcing the law. What choice do we have when our insurance policies and rates depend on it.
Compared to when we were at the age of getting our licenses, there are far more drivers on the road ( at least in my corner of the country )
More drivers= more risk for accidents.
There has been talk in NJ about raising the driving age to 18…I think that is stupid because most 18 yr olds will be driving for a ery short time before entering collge ( where they will most likely NOT have a car ) that makes for less driving experience when the kids graduate college. I would prefer the requirements for obtaining the license be tougher. What the drivers test entails in this state is a joke, as well as school sponsored drivers ed. The responsibilty falls almost entirely on the parents. I have done it twice and it was not fun…very stressful. They should’ve learned a lot more than thye did in DE.</p>