Posted On: October 24, 2005, 4:05 pm CDT

Posted By: Rob

Parents who hand their teens off to school sponsored driver education or professional driving schools, then toss them the keys to a 4,000 lb "weapon" with little or no personal involvement shouldn't be surprised when their kids' crash cars, injure or kill themselves, their passengers and/or innocent third parties.

All states should have mandatory, parent-taught driver training (after appropriate parent training) with mandatory joint-testing and significant (50-100 hour minium) requirements for supervised behind-the-wheel training with parents.

At least parents will then know what to expect and if their children are aware of the responsibility driving an automobile carries with it.

Short of that the legal driving age should be 21.

As a father of 21 and 18 year old sons (both accident and violation-free), I can attest it really works! Too bad they're still having to pay higher youthful operator rates based on the immature drivers and irresponsible parents who create these horrifying youthful driver statistics.