Some of the most terrifying hours in a parent’s life occur sitting next to a teen who’s learning to drive. You’re helpless in the passenger seat, with no brake or steering, while your son or daughter takes command of a giant hurtling chunk of metal and glass.
The new driver next to you usually believes that he or she is already an expert. The new driver is particularly sensitive if a parent gets even the slightest bit edgy–are you yelling?–when the car veers toward the curb at 45 m.p.h. Or if the parent grips the armrest in desperation when the new driver “forgets” to slow down before a right turn, turning the family Volvo into an Indy 500 racer.
Yes, there’s right turn on red, but not through a pedestrian!
Do you understand the concept of the blind spot?
You’re going too fast.
You’re going too slow.
It’s a yellow light! Don’t gun it!
That’s a stop sign, not a suggestion.
No, this is not a fun job. But it is one of the most important a parent will ever do.
By law, parents are supposed to log 25 hours supervising their neophyte driver. The teen is supposed to document every minute, and the parent is supposed to confirm that time behind the wheel with a signature. Now there’s a proposal in the General Assembly to double that requirement, to 50 hours, including at least 10 at night.
That was introduced by state Rep. John D’Amico (D-Chicago), after a car crash that killed a 16-year-old and 17-year-old in Lincolnwood late last year. The driver in that crash was 16.
There’s no question that 16-year-old new drivers are the most dangerous on the road. A 16-year-old’s crash rate is twice that of drivers who are just a couple of years older.
All the evidence points to one conclusion: The more experience a teen can get before receiving his or her license, the better. Driving experience may be more important than the age of the driver in preventing accidents. The statistics show that driving accidents peak in the first 250 miles that a new driver is on the road after getting a license. In a 2003 study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, the crash rate for new drivers dropped by nearly half after the first 250 miles, and continued to fall in the first 1,000 miles.
Cruising with mom or dad for 25 or 50 hours doesn’t compensate, of course, for solo driving after the license. We all know that the absence of a supervising parent in the passenger seat can diminish how safely a teen drives. And 50 hours is a lot for busy parents. We suspect (OK, we know) that even with the 25-hour requirement, many weary parents give a wink and a nod and sign off on a few hours that weren’t actually spent on the road. That may be a relief to them, but it doesn’t help a young driver.
Those parents who cheated or didn’t bother to supervise their kids for the full 25 hours won’t be swayed by a 50-hour law. But think about this. How would you feel if your new teen driver has an accident? Would you console yourself knowing that you had logged every minute of the 25–or 50–hours, preparing that teen? Or would you regret–forever–that you’d cut corners?
