A Student’s Point of View — Drunk Driving Can Ruin Spring Break — by Kristi Erk
Spring break is upon us again. We will all wait impatiently for Friday with dreams of beaches, western ski slopes, or simply of our hometown and home-cooked meals. And while I count myself among this group, I do so with a burden upon my shoulders. It is time now to share that burden with you all.
Just over two weeks ago, I received a phone call from a close high school friend. She doesn’t go to school here, so it is a rare occasion that we get to talk. I was excited when I saw her name on the caller’s I.D., but her voice on the other line told me all was not well. After taking a deep breath to compose herself, she told me that a good friend from home had been killed in a car accident…
Read the full article (March 3, 2005) from the Collegiate Times.
Are you sick of getting lectured by adults about road safety and stuff? We all went through what you are at now: All that talk about a new license, new freedom — blah, blah, blah — and we reacted just the same, too — we didn’t want to listen, either!
But most of us grasped pretty quickly that having fun is challenging if you are dead. So look at this linked site and think it through for yourself. Is taking chances worth it?
Hard Facts — What are YOUR odds?: Although the number of drivers ages 16 to 20 who were killed [in the USA, in 2003] declined by 4.4 percent from the previous year, there were still 3,571 such fatalities, according to the NHTSA. In addition, crashes involving young drivers killed 2,292 [of their own] passengers. And in all, there were 7,353 fatal accidents involving young drivers last year. That’s an average of twenty every day, and this doesn’t include several a hundred thousand young drivers and their passengers who are “merely” injured each year, all of which narrows the odds for those who believe “It’ll never happen to me!”
[Source: Washington Post, September 9, 2004]
This one is mainly for the guys!
— Got a new car?
— Got a new girlfriend?
— Got your friends in the car with you?
Survey results released in February 2004 by the U.K. Department for Transport’s Think! Road Safety campaign shows what we think of our other half’s driving – and many of us are scared and angered when our partner’s speed which applies when our friends are driving, too.
This report has some critical facts and is v, valuable reading for any driver. Click here. (Feb. 2004)
Some basic but good advice for teens and other new drivers may be found on ‘A Safer Site – Young Drivers’ from the NSC.
Nobody is trying to talk down to you, but click on the image and show us why adults can get so wound up about young people driving too fast or a newly-qualified youngster taking a group of friends as passengers (both situations being potentially hazardous).
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In the two pictures thumb-nailed below, a BMW driven by a nineteen-year-old man with four teen & ‘twenties passengers was traveling so fast it launched over the safety barriers in the middle of the road and hit an oncoming Land Rover Freelander. All five in the BMW were killed. Three people, including a two-year-old boy, were killed in the Freelander, and at the time of writing, one adult is still in hospital in serious condition.
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The whole story of this dreadful and pointless carnage is on our international’ Road Safety In The News’ web page, listed on May 18, 2004.
The ThinkQuest Library has a site by teen drivers for teen drivers: “Everything you ever wanted to know about teenage driving but were afraid to ask.”
In Ohio, ‘The Matrix’ is Athens High School’s online student newspaper. Click here to read one of those students’ take on safe driving.
Have a groan now if you don’t like statistics, but D.O., read this page. So many things on it could keep you living long enough for you to have that fun that was mentioned higher up on this page.
In Australia, two kids who lost siblings in separate road crashes formed TRAG (Teenagers’ Road Accident Group), and this website gives a good insight.
The graduated licensing system for each U.S. state is available from the IIHS.