New rules of the road

With Maine losing an average of one teenager a week to vehicle accidents, it’s admirable that the Maine Legislature has taken initiative to improve young driver’s education. It’s also admirable that parents of new drivers will now play an even greater role in the development of their sons and daughters’ driving habits.

This week, a front page story details some new rules adopted recently by the Maine Legislature. These new “rules of the road” go a long way in the teaching and training up of Maine drivers. The training doesn’t stop at merely teaching kids in the classroom, although it does provide for 30 hours of classroom lecture. It instead is very hands-on with kids learning the rules of driving while driving.

Maine’s new system of training our young drivers is based on other states and their experiments with graduated licensing. Other states have blazed this trail, and Maine can now reap the benefits. The Legislature should be commended for enacting these rules, which will ultimately help save lives. Its efforts at enacting the new driver’s education program sets the tone that Maine values its young drivers and is willing to invest in their futures.

Under the new rules, wannabe drivers will now have to undergo a full year of training. They spend time in the classroom and 10 hours behind the wheel with an accredited driving instructor. And that’s only to get a permit. To get their full license, they must then drive successfully with a parent or guardian for another six months before they can go for their full driver’s license. And, most importantly, they cannot use cell phones, have friends in their vehicles or drive after midnight. All of these requirements represent an attempt by society to teach kids the right way to drive before they get out on their own and learn the wrong way.

Probably the greatest part of the new rules is that 17 year olds will no longer be driving with their peers. Who hasn’t witnessed idiot teens driving dangerously and irresponsibly because of an audience in the passenger seat? Hopefully, by jumping through all the necessary hoops to qualify for a full driver’s license, at age 18 they will be responsible enough to stay out of trouble.

According to Russ Rader of the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety, “graduated licensing is the one thing that we know works to reduce teen crashes.”

This practice of slowly introducing new drivers to the rest of the driving community is a healthy one employed by states around the country. However, just because we have the state helping to mandate safer roads doesn’t mean we as parents and guardians are exempt from being proactive with our younger driving population. According to Rader, parents are just as important as they ever were.

“The most important component of this is parents,” he said. “They need to enforce their own laws regardless of the state laws. It’s important in the first year that parents lay down the rules.”

So, there you have it. Parents need to step up and make sure their kids are responsible behind the wheel. Parents, especially in the adolescent years, are instrumental in showing us the correct way to drive. Who doesn’t remember all the shrieks from mom or dad during those first few driving attempts (with a stick shift, especially!) It’s imperative that the parents keep barking out commands and showing their kids the ropes.

And the new rules, which require a kid to drive with his parent or guardian for a full six months after getting his learner’s permit, in effect gives the parent more leverage and authority. The student driver has to respect the parent’s wishes if he wants to stay in the driver’s seat. And that’s a good thing, for everyone involved, especially for those of us in the other lane.

-John Balentine, editor