When I was a teenager in the 9th grade, a car full of neighbor kids were in a terrible accident. The group was going into The Bronx from Yonkers NY to treat the birthday girl to White Castle hamburgers. She had just turned 13 years old. She never made it home. A truck jackknifed in front to them, and several of them died instantly. Others were injured. Our community lost a 13 year old girl, a 15 year old boy (my classmate’s brother), and the 18 year old driver. An 18 year old passenger lost his arm (that he had hanging out of the door), and a toddler survived unscathed as the driver threw himself on top of the baby.
As you can see, even 25 years later this event is etched in my memory. Even with these events freshly embedded in my mind, I still did some brain-dead things as a teenager when it came to riding with friends. On one incident there were seven of us and we wanted to fit into a small sports car in order to get to a mock trial competition. Four kids sat in the bucket seats, and one sat on the hump in back, and another sat on the front passengers lap. The seventh student, (me) laid across the laps of three kids in the back. Can you name how many laws we broke?
Even with the horrible events that devastated our community just two years prior, my friends and I still practiced poor common sense when it came to driving with our friends. While many more laws were written since then such as no friends in the car until the driver is a certain age, everyone in seat belts, etc, kids still are better off not driving with their friends.
The plain and simple truth is that friends are a distraction to the driver. Only the most experienced, calm, and mature driver can handle driving safely with another kid in the car. Even then, they need to be driving with only the most mature passenger. After all, even as adults, haven’t we all had someone in our car that is just a distraction?
So do you let your kids drive in a friends car, and should you? So far, we have said no. At some point in the near future, my son will be allowed to drive in a friends car, it is clear that he is to call us and ask us first, and we need to know the driver so that we can make a educated decision based on what we know of the driver. As for my daughter who is younger, it will be several years before I have to worry about her driving with one of her friends, but she will follow the same rules as my son.
If you liked this you should also read my other posts at the home blog, the homeschooling blog, the parents blog, and the frugal blog. You can read my recent posts here.
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