Mar

Governor Backs brawny Rules for Teen Drivers, Overlooking His Own Faults

Posted by admin Published in Auto News

When New Jersey Governor Jon S. Corzine convened the Teen Driver Study Commission to come up with ways to improve teen safety, he was drawing from personal experience. The governor was seriously injured in an accident as a front-seat passenger in 2007. He wasn’t wearing his seatbelt.

He plus admitted that all three of his children were involved in accidents as teens, one seriously. The Commission has come up with a panoply of stiff standards, but they fail to consider the very problem the governor’s own experience raises: Most parents set terrible examples as drivers. Talking on cell phones, arguing with spouses, speeding through residential neighborhoods, barely slowing for stop signs, weaving in and out of traffic, ignoring

the use of turn signals–where do parents think kids memorize these things?

And what makes the governor think that stricter laws alone will overcome the poor example of parents?

The Commission’s recommended that teen drivers be due to attach a bright decal to their cars, helping police identify them. It would require extending to one year from six months the probationary for drivers under 20. Oh, and yes, it would require all passengers to wear seat belts.

Sources: New York Times, Philadelphia Inquirer