Keep driving age, restrictions in place
Ask any parent of a teenager, and they'll have stories to tell - both good and, more than likely. bad - about the driving skills of their child.
The scary first time their child drove in snow. The time when they were assured by their son or daughter that they knew what they were doing, but then got confused between the brake pedal and accelerator. The botched attempt at parallel parking.
And some of those parents may agree that it's best that their child wait until age 18 to get a license, as the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety suggested last week.
And we agree. Parents who know their child isn't ready to get behind the wheel should wait to give permission to get a license. But we don't agree with the Insurance Institute that the minimum driving age of 16 be increased.
As Prospect High School driving instructor Tim Lazzarotto told the Daily Herald's Sheila Ahern last week, it's the practice time that leads to better drivers not just age.
"It's really the parents' call. It all boils down to how much parents practice with their kids," Lazzarotto said.
It's true, as the Insurance Institute pointed out, that car crashes are the leading cause of death among teenagers. In Illinois, 1,480 teen drivers were involved in fatal crashes between 2000 and 2006. However, 18- and 19-year-olds were involved in a greater percentage of those accidents than 16- and 17-year-old drivers.
We have been on record before saying it's not practical to raise the age, citing, for example, the need for teens to drive to work or to other activities. And we also have been very supportive of the measures Illinois has taken in recent years to ensure that teens start driving safely from the beginning of their driving career.
The state's graduated licensing system phases in driving privileges for teen drivers. It also restricts when teens can drive and requires more teaching and practice time behind the wheel.
Just this year, new laws required a driving permit to be issued for nine months rather than three to get more practice time behind the wheel. Also, the youngest drivers (ages 16 and 17) are prohibited from driving past 10 p.m. during the week and 11 p.m. on the weekend. And for the first year with a license, a new driver can have only one, unrelated teenage passenger. That was increased from six months.
All of these are important restrictions. And, as we reported last month, appear to be working. There were 39 teen driving fatalities in the first half of 2008, compared to 82 for the same period in 2007.
We think it appropriate to see if those numbers will continue to fall. If, upon further review, we don't think they're doing enough, then it will be time to revisit the driving age or more restrictions.
Until then, we don't think it right to make high school students wait until they potentially go off to college to learn how to drive, Parents need to be heavily involved in the instruction phase and they need to decide - without peer or societal pressure - when the privileges of a driver's license have been earned by their child.