I ran across several articles on this topic at the time and they all referenced the “auto safety group” in the same manner. The topic was raising the legal driving age for teens in Arizona. One article starts off with the words “an influential auto safety group.” In my mind if this auto safety group had so much influence they would use it to influence drivers across the board to obey the traffic laws and rules!
Sure enough teens are having problems and have become a problem but not as a result of their own doing. I was taught that “children learn what they live.” When I was 15 I had a driver education class offered at the high school I attended. How many 15 year old teens in Arizona can do the same? In Arizona driver education is not a priority and in many instances has been eliminated from the schools curriculum. Therefore, the teenagers are dependent on parents to teach them what they know. These are the same parents that have become drivers that do not wear seat belts, stop in the middle of the crosswalk at stop signal lines, never look both ways, and makes “Hollywood” stops when making right turns.
This obviously, isn’t the person you want teaching teenagers how to drive but this is the person you have ordained to be their instructors! I say if the “influential auto safety group” is so concerned and really wants to show some influence why not pay to put driver education back in the Arizona school system. With qualified teachers and instruction teen driving will no doubt improve. Currently, the only alternative is the driving schools. The problem here is driving schools are not free. Not all families can afford to do this besides everyone that I talk to that drives swears that they are “good” drivers! Therefore, why should I pay for driver instruction for my child when I can teach them myself? This is called the rat race! This has become a vicious cycle of denial and ignorance that has lead to annual collisions of 130,000, 30,000 injuries and 1,000 fatal deaths in Arizona.
