Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, May 2, 1993 TAG: 9305030270
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: F-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The National Transportation Safety Board has recommended that states put a midnight-to-5 a.m. driving curfew on "young novice drivers," mainly 16- and 17-year-olds. Why?
Fifteen- to 20-year-olds account for 14.9 percent of all driver fatalities, although they comprise only 7.1 percent of licensed drivers.
Teen-agers do only 20 percent of their driving at night, yet half their fatalities are at night.
About 30 percent of teen-age drivers killed in 1991 tested positive for alcohol.
Teens interviewed about the suggested curfew responded, predictably, that it wouldn't be fair, that it'd be just one more restriction on young people's freedom. So? Young people's freedom should be restricted. And not because, as one young woman put it, "The general populace think all teens are bad when they're not."
Those among the general populace who've made it through their teen years voiced the same complaint when they were young; most can remember those days well enough to know that, indeed, teens are not all bad. What teens are is young, and many good kids lack the judgment that comes with maturity.
Not all do, however. That's why parents are in a better position than government for making the rules on when their teen-ager can have the car. Let's leave this call in parents' hands.
Better is an NTSB recommendation for states to establish a minimum blood-alcohol content of 0.0 percent for teen-agers, and immediately suspend or revoke the license of any teen who shows even a trace of alcohol. Unfair, considering adults can drive with a blood-alcohol content of up to 0.10 percent? No way.
Driving is a privilege, not a right. Any teen-ager who drinks illegally, then thinks he has the judgment to know whether he can drive safely, shows the judgment for neither. Take him - or her - off the road, fast.
by CNB