6/16/09 Living with Children
John Rosemond
Copyright 2009, John K. Rosemond
The legislature and governor of New Jersey have lost their collective
common sense, which is to say they are politicians. The former passed
and the latter signed a law set to take effect in 2010 that will
require drivers age 21 and younger to put stickers on the bumpers of
their cars letting fellow drivers know they are road hazards. The exact
wording of said sticker has not been determined, so allow me to be the
first to suggest “Yute.”
The research is
unequivocal: Teenage drivers are a generally dangerous bunch. A few
supporting facts (from a highly recommended online article at
http://www.edmunds.com/advice/womenfamilies/articles/44908/article.html):
Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for American teenagers.
When
driver fatality rates are calculated on the basis of estimated annual
travel, teen drivers (16 to 19 years old) have a fatality rate that is
about four times higher than the fatality rate among drivers 25 through
69 years old.
Sixty-five percent of teen passenger deaths occur when another teenager is driving.
I have long been a proponent of not letting youngsters acquire driving
privileges until two conditions have been satisfied: age 18 and a high
school diploma. When I ask parents, “Would you allow your child to
ingest a substance that is not inherently toxic, but for unexplained
reasons proves fatal to one child in, say, ten thousand?” No parent has
ever answered in the affirmative.
“So why then are you allowing your 16-year-old to drive a car?” I then ask, and the hemming and hawing begins.
Laws extending driving privileges to 16-year-olds were established when
cars were far less powerful, roads were far less crowded, and
16-year-olds were far more mature (and please, 16-year-olds, don’t
waste your time writing me letters of protest, confirming my point).
Nonetheless,
there is no public good to be had by requiring young people to
advertise on the bumpers of their cars that they are young. I seriously
doubt that other people, so informed, are going to give said drivers
wider berth. And if they do, the Law of Unintended Consequences is very
likely to kick in. The young driver, having more space around him, may
increase his or her speed. Or change lanes. Or take the opportunity to
take in the sunset. You get my point, I’m sure.
Then
there’s the predator thing. The research clearly indicates that teenage
girls are at greatest risk for sexual predation. As a father, I would
not want my teenage daughter driving around with a bumper sticker
announcing her vulnerability. There are all sorts of ways of persuading
or forcing people to pull over, and if this once happened to my wife
(who realized, in the nick of time, what the individual, a male,
probably had in mind), then it can certainly happen to a youngster who
is considerably more naïve.
And if danger to others
is the issue, then why require “ageist” bumper stickers only of the
younger set? Why not require them of the other age group that
constitutes the second most statistical danger to other drivers—the
elderly? Or how about requiring bumper stickers of people who are
short, have been diagnosed with psychiatric or sleep disorders, have
restless leg syndrome, a child or children in the car with them, are
confused as to the meaning of “Objects in Mirror Are Closer Than They
Appear,” are dyslexic or directionally impaired, put on makeup or use
their cell phones while driving, or cannot resist looking at themselves
in mirrors?
Imagine the public good of bumper stickers reading “Beware! Narcissist Driver!”
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