Totally unrelated to sex...

[Prussian Overlord]

I don't know about the other states/countries represented on this board but recently in Georgia, and specificly in Atlanta, there has been a rash of fatal teen car accidents. They (the bureaucrats) are talking about raising the driving age here. Somehow i don't think this will make a bit of difference as the problem (as i see it) is inexperience rather than age. What do ya'll think?

just me...

 

[Juliangel]

I live in Atlanta and I agree there have been too many. No I am not sure if raising the age will help. It didn't help with the drinking age.

Something needs to give though because these kids should be growing up instead of dying. When I learned to drive I was taught to respect a carand had to learn how to change a tire, add oil, water and transmission fluid before i could drive it. I was told if I could respect and take care of it I couldn't drive it.

 

[KillerMuffin]

From the bitching my neices have been doing lately, they're raising the age limit from 16 to 18 in Missouri. Unless you can demonstrate a need for your kid to have one, like hardship or farming.

I think it will make a difference. Drinking is easy to hide, where driving isn't nearly as easy to hide. One of my problems when I was a driving teenager was the average teen arrogance, lack of understand of mortality, and it-will-never-happen-to-meitis. I drove far more recklessly then than I do now that I can grasp the fact that doing 90 miles an hour down residential streets is deadly dangerous.

 

[Gaucho]

Up here (Vermont) instead of raising the minimum age, they've tightened the restrictions on when and with whom young drivers can get behind the wheel. I'm not sure of the exact requirements but some of the restrictions are:

*Only when a responsible adult (over 21) is in the vehicle

*No driving after dark

*No ferrying other teens around

This last one has really pissed the teens up here off because it means that they can't even drive their friends (or, in some cases, their siblings) home from school. Their argument is that it infringes upon their "rights" - as if driving were a right...but that's another thread entirely. Since most teen-related accidents usually involve other teens (quite often with alcohol thrown into the mix), this restriction seems to make sense.

 

[Sparky Kronkite]

It's very hard for me........

to ever consider, let alone do away with, a long established privilege. Unless extreme circumstances exist.

I don't believe they do here.

Certainly times change. But I always tend to think for the better. I like to think the teen of today is more thoroughly educated, street wise and therefore wiser than the Wally Cleaver's of the past.

Accident's happen - and like the weather - they seemingly, inexplicably have a harsh impact on our lives.

Again - I think it's a matter of reality and numbers and what the news presents to us and more exactly what they, the news folk, present to us. Which in turn means what they don't present to us.

Politics and vote getting is again the fuel, not the deaths of these teens and the reality of math, that feeds this fire.

{Again the reality of math: Take the aforementioned weather for instance. Everybody's worried about the summer droughts, El Hispanic winds, the severity and frequency of our storms, etc., etc. But, but, but - global warming et all (all our weather stuff) - when put into the context of historical data (math) - shows absolutely nothing abnormal regarding recent weather trends. Hell the Bible (believe it or not) mentions droughts of hundreds of years. Well, maybe that didn't happen, maybe it was only over a few summers - and the people freaked and one thing led to another and it went down in the book as hundreds of years. Hey, people freak! But who's fueling the rhetoric on the subject of the weather today and why? Hey, you know, don't you - Politicians. And now you know why too.}

I say no - don't make all teens suffer for the sake of making "you" feel good by raising the age. Teens have rights, just as much as you do.

Let them drive at the age other's in their states have been doing since the laws came to being. You - teach them about the responsibilities of driving....

Don't be too quick to itch that scratch - it can hurt.

 

[Gimpy]

Since I was paralyzed in a car accident when I was 17, I feel I need to add my thoughts on this subject. My accident didn't involve drugs, alcohol, or speeding(there were no charges filed). I also don't think it was my lack of experience, since I grew up on a farm and began driving when I was about 10. I was driving a lifted Jeep with big tires and lost control. After swerving on and off the road several times I rolled between 3 and five times. One of my best friends was in the passengers seat, his seatbelt snapped and he was ejected and died from massive head injuries. I broke my neck, ribs, and was cut in multiple places. My friends 10 year old brother was in the back seat, and he walked away without a scratch. I don't remember the accident at all, I only know what I've been told and what the police report says.

Now back to the subject. I really don't think moving the age up would help. Having a parent or other adult in the vehicle would probably be the best. Some people, who have never driven before, get their learners permit, learn to drive, and get their liscence in less than 3 months. This is dangerous. I think you should be able to get your learners permit at 16, an be required to have it for 6 months, or even a year before you can get your liscence. And I won't even get into the sports cars parents buy for their 16 year olds.

 

[Sparky Kronkite]

Hey Gimpmeister!!!

Hey Gimp Guy!!!! Coming on through with the big info - good going!!!!

I'm at lunch and they're calling for me but had to let this one fly……………

True story........

In the Corps, or any service, for the most part ya just want to get the fuck out - especially when I was in - the baby killer days right after Nam. Anyway, you count down your days, 200, 150 etc.. You eventually become a 2-digit midget - under 100 days. And of course you eventually get out. Your buddies? Some are in longer'n you, some get out before you. Some have saved some money, some get a discharge bonus with unused leave let's say, some don't and go home broke.

My good friend Dennis got out with a healthy bonus of about $2grand, well before me. He went home to the Southern Maryland shore. He got a job as a grease monkey. He bought a '67 Camaro, blueprinted 327, with everything set-up for the strip. That means skinny/light tires and loose shocks up front - stiff and real sticky/wide in the rear. He wants to show his car off to me - us - another guy name Steve F. (Smallest guy ever let into the Corps at 5'2.5 and 103lbs but you didn't want to fuck with him let me tell you). Dennis gets back down to Q town (Quantico Va.,) we get a case of Strawberry Hill Pints and an Oz. We hit a party in the hot rod Camaro. Man this thing was fast!!!! First and only street car I've ever been in that could pull the front wheels off the ground. About 11pm'ish we hit the road, US Rt. 1. Stupid! I knew it too. We - especially Dennis, basking in his new civilian glow, hair getting long again and with his new studly car - were way too fucked up to be on the road.

After a couple of huge hole shots and me two or three times trying to get the keys from Dennis (I was in the back seat) Dennis took off - I mean that fuckin' car took off - anyway, when he hit 3rd gear, still accelerating hard - that light, drag racing front end didn't leave a whole lot of rubber on the ground. Too late - we were in a pretty good right hand sweeper. No road racer this car - Dennis let off the throttle, the front end crashed down and hooked up - too much - Dennis over compensated, we swerved back right. I heard the first tire breaking loose noises and dove on the floor in the rear seat, no seat belts on any of us. Within an instant we flew right into a little (but big enough) cement bridge abutment over a little creek. We caromed off that - flipped too numerous times to know how many. We came to a rest in an island that divided the highway.

I felt like I'd been hit hard with a baseball bat about a million times - I was seeing stars. I called for Dennis, no answer. I felt forward in the front seat for him because I could not see him. The interior of the car was black so I thought that between that and my seeing stars he might be slumped over and lower some how - I felt but he was not there. Neither was the driver side window. I heard gas gushing out the rear. I dove out the broken out window. I was dizzy and roughed up but saw and felt no blood on me. I stumble and fell to the ground about 50ft. from the car.

Or what was left of it. The papers the next day said we had to be going in excess of 110mph. Anyway - the Camaro had no front end - no engine, no front wheels or tires, no radiator - nothing. I saw the engine about 60ft. the other side of the car and it had no heads, no carb - just a smoldering block and tranny. The rear trunk lid was gone and rear badly mangled - one wheel and tire was left on the car.

I heard Steve (who in my delirium I had forgotten about) yell for help. I pulled him out. He powdered his knee cap on the dash and twisted his leg so bad (three times around I think) that he had to walk with a cane the rest of his life.

I went looking for Dennis. The first lights of an approaching car were coming down the road. I headed for them. As the car got closer and slowed I found Dennis in the headlights - way up on the fucking road. A good 100ft. from where the car had come to a rest. He was still alive but I knew he wouldn't be for long. I could tell that in trying to regain control of the car - he was upright at impact - he didn't have much of a face left. He died in the chopper.

The fireman and doctors at the hospital could not believe I was in that car. I'm very lucky to be here.

I was 19.

Keep'em coming Gimp. See what you can get out of people.

 

[Sparky Kronkite]

PS to the rest of you lurkers......

Everybody has an interesting story.

Back to work.

 

[Sparky Kronkite]

PS II for big Prussian...

Everybody can start an interesting thread.

Back to work again. Ugh!

 

[Prussian Overlord]

Back to work? you mean i have to think AGAIN?! ugh i don't know if i can handle that...