{"id":5361,"date":"2011-03-14T16:21:41","date_gmt":"2011-03-14T16:21:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.diaryofanadi.co.uk\/?p=5361"},"modified":"2011-03-14T16:21:41","modified_gmt":"2011-03-14T16:21:41","slug":"driving-age-up-or-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/diaryofanadi.co.uk\/?p=5361","title":{"rendered":"Driving Age Up… or Down?"},"content":{"rendered":"

There’s talk again of raising the driving age in the UK in an attempt to stop immature morons killing themselves. I guess the hope is that an extra year or two means that they will grow up and behave at least a little like adults (the majority of teenage boys don’t become mentally mature until at least another 10 years after <\/em>their teens).<\/p>\n

But spare a thought for the Americans. Over there, you’re eligible to drive from the moment you can breath until the moment when you can’t anymore.<\/p>\n

Seriously, though, the Americans are having a major burn on the issue of teen road deaths<\/a> and distracted driving. So it is strange that this article should appear in the Maryville Daily Forum.<\/p>\n

The author boasts that her granddaughter (I think) was being taught to drive by her friend – she didn’t want anyone else to teach her: just her best friend.<\/p>\n

\n

Carla had a friend over. She wanted the friend to teach her to drive. (Why they just didn’t play with dolls, I’ll never know!) <\/p>\n

The only vehicle available that afternoon happened to be Dad’s pick-up. Said pickup had a standard transmission \u2014 AKA stick shift. <\/p>\n

I wasn’t about to have anything to do with this driving lesson. Oh, I could have taught my sister to drive; however, I valued my life and these young teenage girls didn’t have Dad’s permission to conduct the lesson, much less drive his prize pick-up. <\/p>\n

So, I hid out in the living room. I don’t know what I was doing, but I should have turned the music up louder or hid out in a more sound-proof location. It wasn’t long before I heard “Bam, Bam, Bam,” coming from the driveway. What in the world? <\/p>\n

Reluctantly, I went to the east window of the living room. There I saw Dad’s pickup banging into the garage door over and over. Inside the cab of said truck I noticed two teenage girls giggling for all they were worth. <\/p>\n

I just went back to the living room, turned up the TV and hid out a little longer. <\/p>\n

I don’t think it was necessary for Carla to learn to drive a stick shift anyway. Evidently not because I don’t think she ever learned. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Frighteningly, that teenager could have been allowed out on the road. Is it any wonder the USA has a problem if this kind of thing is going on? It isn’t funny. Tragic, maybe. Worrying, to be sure. But definitely not <\/em>funny.<\/p>\n

Then there is this story about how to choose an instructor<\/a>. Remember that in some States you can drive at 14. The majority are 15, and a few 16.<\/p>\n

\n

Car crashes kill more teens than cancer, homicide and suicide combined, which is why choosing a good driving school could quite literally be a life or death decision. In fact, the Automobile Association of America (AAA) reports that although teens represent only 7% of the licensed population, they are involved in almost 20% of all fatal accidents. Scary stuff. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Yes. Very scary. Scary that 7% of the population is responsible for 20% of all fatal accidents. In fact, the word is “terrifying”, not just scary. It’s an unbelievable statistic.<\/p>\n

If they want to reduce deaths amongst teens, then raise the age limit to one which corresponds to being out of nappies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There’s talk again of raising the driving age in the UK in an attempt to stop immature morons killing themselves. I guess the hope is that an extra year or two means that they will grow up and behave at least a little like adults (the majority of teenage boys don’t become mentally mature until at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[80,101],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adi-related","category-world-related"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t