Teenagers have everything on their mind but driving. They are talking with friens, on the cell phone or even trying to text while driving. This is a prescription for disaster and many deaths and serious injuries are the result.
I taught driver’s ed a while back and I suggested to my employer that the course was very lacking in teaching how to regain vehicle control in an emergency or how to anticipate potential loss of control under specific circumstances. I was told that driver’s ed was designed to get the student a license, not to teach the student how to drive. I contacted my old high school driver’s ed teacher who echoed the same sentiment.
Yes, texting while driving is deadly as is drink driving but there is no reason to not instruct new drivers on how to re-gain control of the vehicle regardless of why control was lost.
BTW- My CPCU instructor refused to discuss or debate the contents of the texbooks we were using because the course was designed to get the student a CPCU designation, not necessarily to learn anything about the theory of insurance. Same problem isn’t it ?
Water bug’s comments are right on the money. Back in 2004 one month after my 16 year old daughter got her drivers license she ran off the right side of the road at 60mph in a curve on a rural road, overcorrected by jerking the wheel to the left which caused the vehicle to flip 4-5 times landing upside down in wooded area on the opposite side of the road. By the grace of God she and her friend in the passenger’s seat crawled out with only scratches thanks to seatbelts and airbags. She was totally unprepared how to handle gaining control of the vehicle and we all asked the same question when we learned this wasn’t taught in drivers ed, “why?”
In N/E Texas, we just buried a 16 year old girl who was texting while driving, lost control and hit a tree. She was an honor student, but didn’t have the common sense to stay off the phone while driving and in addition trying to text on it. What a sad tale this is. This is paramount that Drivers Ed and parents should drive home the importance of no cell phone use unless they pull over and stop. Grown ups do the same thing. It is a wonder we don’t have even more problems because cell phone use is a disease and people have to be using them all the time.
Agent, you TOTALLY missed the main findings of the research quoted in the article.
In fact, the critical errors the researchers pointed to have more to do with inexperience and very little to do with immaturity. This is why I don’t support the general trend of raising the driving age. There’s no reason to make 18 the new 16.
The article totally missed the mark on the dangers of cell phone use and the addiction to them by teenagers. They think they have to be on the phone every waking moment or texting or checking their face book. Getting behind the wheel and driving while talking or texting means nothing to them. I am not sure raising the driving age to 18 will help anything. College kids are just as bad and the problem is getting worse. Many states have passed laws banning texting while driving which is long overdue. If parents start having to pay hefty fines for their kids doing this, maybe they will lift the cell phone privileges for a while.
OK, prove how big of a problem it is with data. By focusing on what we perceive to be a big problem rather than what actually is a big problem, we waste our time trying to solve the wrong problem.
Waterbug had it right when he said drivers ed should include more evasive driving techniques. But unfortunately people with your attitude are the ones who set the education policies. So instead of practicing how to regain control of a vehicle, students are stuck inside watch a slide show presentation of the dangers of texting and driving (which they already know, by the way).
Youngin, all you need to do is watch the news sometime, read the obituaries and see how many young people are killed in accidents, many of which were caused by inattention when they were on the cell talking or texting. Their mind is on anything but driving, they lose control, can’t recover and end up killing themselves or someone else. I will agree that schools do a poor job of education and Drivers Ed is not much but basics.
I’ve never seen such ridiculous mass hysteria in my lifetime, as this texting while driving issue. Can anyone link to any data showing that this problem is actually of a significant scale? Or are we just all relying on anecdotes, laboratory studies and so-called “common sense”? Am I the only one who demands facts before the government attempts to further regulate the behavior of its citizens?
I believe the articles findings were on the mark. The upside is that teen drivers are not having accidents because they are driving aggressively or under the influence. It is mainly due to inexperience and that can be corrected. Using a cell while driving falls under distracted driving and this is a big problem with teens and adults.
The drivers education instructor and the parent should both be responsible for educating teen drivers. The parents should observe the teen driver during the period that the teen is driving with a learners permit. In my state parents are required to observe and sign off on a required number of hours under various driving conditions before a teen can obtain their license. I fully support raising the driving age so that teens can obtain more driving EXPERIENCE under the direction and watchful eye of the parent and drivers ed instructor.
Let’s face it-any kind of distracted driving is dangerous. Cell phone conversations and texting are especially bad but every day during my commute I see adults as well as teens being absolutely suicidal in their combining driving and other activities. I watched a man making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on the top of his dashboard while running at 75 mph on the Arizona Loop 101 in Phoenix.
When I got my first car my parents made me remove the radio and they kept it until I had driven 6 months with no tickets or accidents. Yes, that was a long time ago but there is no way I would have disobeyed my folks. At the end of 6 months they had the radio reinstalled and we discovered it didn’t work anyway.
Almost 50 years, 113 cars, and around a million miles later I have had 1 accident that was my fault and it was caused by distracted driving. I was 25 when it happened and fortunately no one was hurt.
You know it wouldn’t hurt to tackle the problem on both ends. How to react and correct a situation to recover before you crash and how to avoid activities that would put you in that situation to begin with. Every age has distracted drivers though I do believe it is more prevalent with younger drivers as they are usually the first to have the newest technology and the least experience to overcome it. Making a sandwich, shaving, putting on makeup or texting is all bad when you are driving. Get up earlier, eat before you go, do your make up and phone calls at home and on a personal not please use your turn signals.
When my two daughters got licensed and started driving, we made a contract with them and had them sign it. First ticket, Defensive Driving, second ticket, loss of use of the car for 30 days, third ticket, no more driving until further notice. Guess what, no problems with either of them. They realized there were consequences to their actions. Cell phones were not an issue then, but we would have put that in the contract as well. Parents need to wake up about this problem. Our society is way too permissive and no one seems to be paying attention.
Good job Wayne 2! It is not an either/or solution. Preventing distractions is preferable, but if prevention fails drivers should know how to recover. I also echo your call for using turn signals!
There is a device that will not allow the car to start if all the seat belts are not connected. If the teanager gets in starts the car and takes the belt off an very loud alarm does off.
In the future there will be developed a device to shut down cell phones (esp testing) when in the car. If they could screen so all you could do was call 911 or home, that could engineer out the problem.
Good idea Kirk. If cell phones wouldn’t work when in the car except for home or 911, that would be a good thing. Parents also need to show responsibility as well and drum safety into their kids heads. The kids may roll their eyes, but they will thank the parents later for caring enough to do it.
So do we really think the findings are on the mark? Do we really believe that when questioned about an accident the teenager actually said I was driving aggressively and lost control because of my inexperience. Look around next time you’re in your car, I bet you can see the color of the eyes of the teenager driving behind you!
Actually I can hear them before I see them. They usually have their woofers going so loud it makes my car vibrate. They should also be ticketed for noise pollution.
Teen Drivers are the ones who are more involved in fatal car crashes and collisions because most of them are quite careless and they want to try a lot of things that are dangerous and most often than not would result to some tragic injuries. This is the reason why if parents would buy a car for their teenage son or daughter, a motor trade insurance is really very essential.
Teenagers have everything on their mind but driving. They are talking with friens, on the cell phone or even trying to text while driving. This is a prescription for disaster and many deaths and serious injuries are the result.
I taught driver’s ed a while back and I suggested to my employer that the course was very lacking in teaching how to regain vehicle control in an emergency or how to anticipate potential loss of control under specific circumstances. I was told that driver’s ed was designed to get the student a license, not to teach the student how to drive. I contacted my old high school driver’s ed teacher who echoed the same sentiment.
Yes, texting while driving is deadly as is drink driving but there is no reason to not instruct new drivers on how to re-gain control of the vehicle regardless of why control was lost.
BTW- My CPCU instructor refused to discuss or debate the contents of the texbooks we were using because the course was designed to get the student a CPCU designation, not necessarily to learn anything about the theory of insurance. Same problem isn’t it ?
Water bug’s comments are right on the money. Back in 2004 one month after my 16 year old daughter got her drivers license she ran off the right side of the road at 60mph in a curve on a rural road, overcorrected by jerking the wheel to the left which caused the vehicle to flip 4-5 times landing upside down in wooded area on the opposite side of the road. By the grace of God she and her friend in the passenger’s seat crawled out with only scratches thanks to seatbelts and airbags. She was totally unprepared how to handle gaining control of the vehicle and we all asked the same question when we learned this wasn’t taught in drivers ed, “why?”
In N/E Texas, we just buried a 16 year old girl who was texting while driving, lost control and hit a tree. She was an honor student, but didn’t have the common sense to stay off the phone while driving and in addition trying to text on it. What a sad tale this is. This is paramount that Drivers Ed and parents should drive home the importance of no cell phone use unless they pull over and stop. Grown ups do the same thing. It is a wonder we don’t have even more problems because cell phone use is a disease and people have to be using them all the time.
Agent, you TOTALLY missed the main findings of the research quoted in the article.
In fact, the critical errors the researchers pointed to have more to do with inexperience and very little to do with immaturity. This is why I don’t support the general trend of raising the driving age. There’s no reason to make 18 the new 16.
The article totally missed the mark on the dangers of cell phone use and the addiction to them by teenagers. They think they have to be on the phone every waking moment or texting or checking their face book. Getting behind the wheel and driving while talking or texting means nothing to them. I am not sure raising the driving age to 18 will help anything. College kids are just as bad and the problem is getting worse. Many states have passed laws banning texting while driving which is long overdue. If parents start having to pay hefty fines for their kids doing this, maybe they will lift the cell phone privileges for a while.
OK, prove how big of a problem it is with data. By focusing on what we perceive to be a big problem rather than what actually is a big problem, we waste our time trying to solve the wrong problem.
Waterbug had it right when he said drivers ed should include more evasive driving techniques. But unfortunately people with your attitude are the ones who set the education policies. So instead of practicing how to regain control of a vehicle, students are stuck inside watch a slide show presentation of the dangers of texting and driving (which they already know, by the way).
Youngin, all you need to do is watch the news sometime, read the obituaries and see how many young people are killed in accidents, many of which were caused by inattention when they were on the cell talking or texting. Their mind is on anything but driving, they lose control, can’t recover and end up killing themselves or someone else. I will agree that schools do a poor job of education and Drivers Ed is not much but basics.
I’ve never seen such ridiculous mass hysteria in my lifetime, as this texting while driving issue. Can anyone link to any data showing that this problem is actually of a significant scale? Or are we just all relying on anecdotes, laboratory studies and so-called “common sense”? Am I the only one who demands facts before the government attempts to further regulate the behavior of its citizens?
I believe the articles findings were on the mark. The upside is that teen drivers are not having accidents because they are driving aggressively or under the influence. It is mainly due to inexperience and that can be corrected. Using a cell while driving falls under distracted driving and this is a big problem with teens and adults.
The drivers education instructor and the parent should both be responsible for educating teen drivers. The parents should observe the teen driver during the period that the teen is driving with a learners permit. In my state parents are required to observe and sign off on a required number of hours under various driving conditions before a teen can obtain their license. I fully support raising the driving age so that teens can obtain more driving EXPERIENCE under the direction and watchful eye of the parent and drivers ed instructor.
Let’s face it-any kind of distracted driving is dangerous. Cell phone conversations and texting are especially bad but every day during my commute I see adults as well as teens being absolutely suicidal in their combining driving and other activities. I watched a man making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on the top of his dashboard while running at 75 mph on the Arizona Loop 101 in Phoenix.
When I got my first car my parents made me remove the radio and they kept it until I had driven 6 months with no tickets or accidents. Yes, that was a long time ago but there is no way I would have disobeyed my folks. At the end of 6 months they had the radio reinstalled and we discovered it didn’t work anyway.
Almost 50 years, 113 cars, and around a million miles later I have had 1 accident that was my fault and it was caused by distracted driving. I was 25 when it happened and fortunately no one was hurt.
You know it wouldn’t hurt to tackle the problem on both ends. How to react and correct a situation to recover before you crash and how to avoid activities that would put you in that situation to begin with. Every age has distracted drivers though I do believe it is more prevalent with younger drivers as they are usually the first to have the newest technology and the least experience to overcome it. Making a sandwich, shaving, putting on makeup or texting is all bad when you are driving. Get up earlier, eat before you go, do your make up and phone calls at home and on a personal not please use your turn signals.
On a personal note please use turn signals. I need a new keyboard.
When my two daughters got licensed and started driving, we made a contract with them and had them sign it. First ticket, Defensive Driving, second ticket, loss of use of the car for 30 days, third ticket, no more driving until further notice. Guess what, no problems with either of them. They realized there were consequences to their actions. Cell phones were not an issue then, but we would have put that in the contract as well. Parents need to wake up about this problem. Our society is way too permissive and no one seems to be paying attention.
Good job Wayne 2! It is not an either/or solution. Preventing distractions is preferable, but if prevention fails drivers should know how to recover. I also echo your call for using turn signals!
There is a device that will not allow the car to start if all the seat belts are not connected. If the teanager gets in starts the car and takes the belt off an very loud alarm does off.
In the future there will be developed a device to shut down cell phones (esp testing) when in the car. If they could screen so all you could do was call 911 or home, that could engineer out the problem.
Good idea Kirk. If cell phones wouldn’t work when in the car except for home or 911, that would be a good thing. Parents also need to show responsibility as well and drum safety into their kids heads. The kids may roll their eyes, but they will thank the parents later for caring enough to do it.
So do we really think the findings are on the mark? Do we really believe that when questioned about an accident the teenager actually said I was driving aggressively and lost control because of my inexperience. Look around next time you’re in your car, I bet you can see the color of the eyes of the teenager driving behind you!
Actually I can hear them before I see them. They usually have their woofers going so loud it makes my car vibrate. They should also be ticketed for noise pollution.
Teen Drivers are the ones who are more involved in fatal car crashes and collisions because most of them are quite careless and they want to try a lot of things that are dangerous and most often than not would result to some tragic injuries. This is the reason why if parents would buy a car for their teenage son or daughter, a motor trade insurance is really very essential.