Our teenage children and automobiles.

[Jimi]

My son was very nearly killed in a car crash Friday afternoon.

No, it's OK, he is fine! Just a bit shaken, and minor scratches...

T-boned in passenger side by a person speeding - but his friend will be charged - left turn... (sigh).

The main thing in both their minds (son & buddy) was: Is Jimi gonna pull an "Attilla the Hun" - No! Everyone is OK, and as I said to the driver - "Shit Happens".

I am SO glad that the buddy's Dad's car was an old "Delta 88 Tank" - the B-pillar took the impact well. No alcohol involved - coming home from school - 2 blocks from our house.

I thought that this was a good venue for us parents on Lit. to discuss how we feel about cars and kids.

 

[MissTaken]

I hope your SO is going to teach him to drive.

I have seen how you drive!

 

[DannyBoyUK]

I am glad your kid is ok, Jimi

As a defence lawyer, I feel very concerned at the incredible fascination that 13 and 14 year olds have with cars. Stealing them, stealing from them, driving them crazily.

Nothing that the cops or social services try seems to deter them.

 

[someplace]

This hits so close to home.

5 weeks ago my 17 yr old (daughter) hit gravel along a country highway (in my definition of the middle of nowhere -- in the middle of the night), overcompensated and ended up flipping her car several times before landing upside-down on a fence. She was travelling about 65 mph, actually less than the posted speed limit, but she was still ticketed for losing control of the car. There is no doubt her seatbelt and airbags saved her life. The car was totaled. She was shaken but okay. The state troopers and paramedics I spoke with were all amazed they didn't have to call LifeFlight.

I felt it was somewhat important to get her back driving again, because she was scared about it. (You know, the old "get back up on the horse routine") Unfortunately, less than 5 days later (in MY car) she rear-ended another car when it stopped suddenly in front of her. <insert huge sigh> Only a fender-bender, but so discouraging.

Now I'm back to being the taxi-Mom while we share my car again. Teenagers + cars = very scary stuff. Having 3 children learn to drive (the 4th starts in another year, dammit) I have volumes of stories, but this is just the most recent chapter. Good luck to you!!!!

 

[Starblayde]

I was involved in a very minor RTA yesterday

i was in the back of my friend's car. He pulled up sharp as a car in front of his stopped suddenly at a junction. Some asian guy in his dad's car Honda just went 'thunk' up against the bumper.

Scraped a load of paint and lacquer off the back. And the Asian guy was drinking a can of Red Bull at the time.

 

[DannyBoyUK]

Drink drivers should be jailed.

None of this "only first offence" shit

None of this "only a bit over the limit" shit

None of this "extenuating circumstances" shit.

And this is a defence lawyer posting who comes up with all of the above three shits every week !


I hate my job sometimes !

 

[explain]

We've got a policy around this house where we must know the people my kids are riding with. This worked very well with my son, and at age 24, he hasn't been in any accident or violation yet. The one time when we got wind that he accepted a ride from someone we didn't know, he was grounded. Yeah, it was harsh, but he's still alive and safe. We got him a car because we knew he was safe and still is a very careful driver. He drove the first car over 200K miles and is now on his second, not a scratch on either.

With my daughter, I can see she'll be one that won't be getting her liscence until she is something like 25! Wild thing! Well, kids are usually opposites, one extreme to the next.

Love them both too much not to care who they are with and where they are (car or no car in this case.)

 

[DannyBoyUK]

I wish the parents of my youth-clients were as responsible as you, explain.

 

[marksgirl]

Frankly kids and cars scare the shit out of me! My 18 year old is in the Army and is very responsible but I too have a wild thing that is 12 now and in just 4 very short years she too will be behind the wheel. Be afraid, very afraid! I am!!!

 

[Weird Harold]

...but I too have a wild thing that is 12 now and in just 4 very short years she too will be behind the wheel. Be afraid, very afraid! I am!!!

Start teaching her about traffic awareness NOW. If you can get her to watching traffic for hazards and making fun of bad drivers from the passenger seat, she'll be a better driver when she gets behind the wheel.

I did this with both daughters from the time they could see out of the car, and have started already with both granddaughters.

Remember, safe drivers know more than the mechanics of steering a car; they also know how to anticipate and avoid problems, and they can learn that long before they can reach the pedals.

 

[someplace]

Our local high school

just held a program called "shattered lives" to vividly demonstrate the cost of drinking and driving. Over 500 people from the community were involved, from law enforcement, fire dept, hospital personnel, funeral directors, paramedics, LifeFlight etc.

An accident was staged at the school with wrecked vehicles and actual students made up to look like they were killed & injured in a DWI crash. The 911 call was played over the school's speaker system and the jrs & srs escorted out to scene to witness the response as it happened: police, fire, paramedics, jaws of life, LifeFlight, hearse etc. The parents were visited or called by officers to tell them of their child's death or injuries (most of the parents were at the scene). Those "injured" were taken to the hospital, "fatalities" were taken to the morgue or funeral home (and given a tour of the facilities).

Accompanying this all during the day in school, approximately 50 students (participating in the program) were visited by the Grim Reaper at different times and escorted from their class while an officer read their obitituary to the class. Those students were now "dead" and could not speak or participate in classes during the rest of the day.

All of the 1st day activity was videotaped. The "dead" students were shuttled to a local hotel for an intensive evening of seminars and lectures by community people affected by drunk driving. There was much counselling during this time too as the entire day was very emotional for all involved. The students' families were not allowed to know where they were staying because the families were supposed to sense the loss of their student being "dead."

The 2nd day began with an assembly at the school featuring the videotape of day 1 and various speakers. I can tell you, this program is incredibly intense, but REALLY got the point across to these students of the risks and realities of drinking and driving. This program has worked in several states and all across Texas. Our school hopes to hold it every 2 years, so that each class of upperclassmen get to participate in it at least once before they graduate. Apparently it is most effective right before Prom and Graduation time.

 

[joolushko]

This thread reminds me of the horrible car accident that happened here on Thrusday. I just found out that the girl driving didn't even have her license or permit.

ACCIDENT ON SAHARA: Student dies in car wreck
Single-car crash near school injures four

By J.M. KALIL
REVIEW-JOURNAL

A speeding car carrying five teen-age girls careened out of control and struck a light pole Thursday near Las Vegas High School, killing one of the students and leaving another on life-support, police said.

The students, who were returning to the East Sahara Avenue campus after lunch at a Burger King, were traveling at least 60 mph as the car bounded over a hill and drove into the road's S-curve, police said.

The driver lost control, sending the Ford Thunderbird into a skid of more than 200 feet before it slammed into the metal light pole in the median. The impact sheared the car into two pieces.

Friends of the girl who died, 17-year-old Natasha Keeter, cried and hugged one another in the parking lot of the high school when school let out about two hours after the accident.

They described the high school senior as kind-hearted, carefree and boy-crazed and said Keeter had found out hours before her death that she had earned straight A's for the first time in her life.

"Today was grade day, and she was so happy about her grades," said Keeter's fourth-period classmate, Courtney Tessier, 18. "She had gone to night school and worked real hard, and she was going to graduate next month. ... She was just so nice."

Frantic firefighters needed 45 minutes to cut through the wreckage before they could extricate the four survivors, all but one of whom was critically injured. All four remained hospitalized Thursday night.

Las Vegas police Sgt. Curt Albert said the 11:22 a.m. accident east of Sloan Lane probably was attributable to a car being driven too fast on a curvy road by an inexperienced driver. The posted speed limit is 45 mph.

"Every curve has a critical speed, and we think it was exceeded here," Albert said, gesturing to the crash site. "I think we all remember back in high school (thinking) that we were invincible, that nothing bad can happen to you."

By early evening, about 30 students and a dozen adult relatives of the survivors had gathered outside University Medical Center to hold vigil for the teens fighting for their lives inside.

Detective Doug Nutton said Keeter was riding in the front passenger seat of the vehicle, which was driven by 16-year-old Ashley Troester.

Nutton said Troester, the only person police think was wearing a seat belt, was in extremely critical condition. Authorities said she was breathing with the aid of life-support machines in the hospital's pediatric Intensive Care Unit.

Two of the back-seat passengers, 16-year-old Ashley Biersach and 15-year-old Kiley Quinn, were listed in critical condition in the hospital's Trauma Center.

Authorities said doctors thought Biersach, the only victim flown to the hospital by helicopter, might need to have a leg amputated.

The third back-seat passenger, 16-year-old Aleisa Valdez, was listed in fair condition.

Nutton said Keeter was dead when paramedics arrived at the scene.

Teresa Turner, 18, was among the scores of students who knew Keeter and left class early to gather at the scene of the crash.

"She always had a good story to tell," Turner said, crying as she spoke. "She'd goof off a lot, but she'd always fix things and keep her life straight. And she really liked boys."

Police officers and firefighters at the scene said they were shocked the crash did not shear the metal pole. The impact wrapped the larger portion of the car around the pole, while the car's front end continued traveling another 50 feet.

Area residents and students said teen drivers regularly race one another along the street on their way back to the campus, about 1 1/2 miles east of the crash site.

"Every school day, every school day they come flying over that ridge," said John Szwedo, who lives in an apartment complex near the crash site. "They know there's no stop sign, so they just come speeding right over the hill."

Szwedo said a traffic accident last month destroyed a transformer about 100 yards from Thursday's crash site, knocking out power to the neighborhood.

Police said that in another recent accident, a vehicle crashed into a light pole just east of the one the Thunderbird slammed into Thursday. That pole has not been replaced.

"People say they're concerned about the number of accidents here, but any place can be this dangerous," Albert said. "We certainly do (speed) enforcement here, just like we do across the valley."

Thursday's accident caused the 42nd traffic-related fatality in the Metropolitan Police Department's jurisdiction this year. At the same time last year, police had investigated 36 fatal accidents.

Las Vegas High senior Lea Rozniewski, 17, said Thursday's accident was reminiscent of another deadly crash that touched the school about two years ago.

"This reminds me of that accident that killed Jennifer Booth," said Rozniewski, referring to the March 2000 accident in which driver Jessica Williams ran over and killed six teens picking up trash along Interstate 15.

Among the victims was Booth, a sophomore at Las Vegas High.

"A lot of people here knew Jennifer, and a lot of people here know Natasha," Rozniewski said. "It's pretty sad."