The Lane Ranger: Readers feel driven about teenage drivers
Joey Ledford - Staff
Wednesday, February 7, 2001

Today we're pulling off at a rest area and catching up with reader mail:

As a 16-year-old, I am very supportive of legislators who are working to make the roads safer by changing teenage driving laws. Teenagers today think that we are adults, though admittedly we don't always act like them.

However, to pull over teenagers and take away their licenses for speeding 14 mph over the speed limit (as is currently proposed) while letting the rest of the adult driving population get away with it seems very wrong.

I know how it feels to be going 65 in the second lane of 285 and watch older drivers whiz past at what must be nearly 100 mph. We need adults to set a good example on the roads so that we can learn from watching them.

Sarah Jenkins, Atlanta

I am a freshman at Dunwoody High School and I strongly believe in keeping the driving age at 16. A major reason so many teens are in accidents is because they are not taught proper driving skills.

All persons should be required to take driver's education prior to obtaining a license. And driver's ed should be offered in all schools, public and private. As important as "core" classes are, teenagers also need to know how to survive in the real world, which includes knowing how to drive properly and safely.

If teens are not taught proper driving skills, they will not know how to drive, whether it be at age 16 or 17.

Robin Wertheim, Dunwoody

The Carroll County band member who thinks the idea of a teen curfew is ridiculous stated that parents consider it a "major pain" to have to pick up teens at late-night ball games. I am a parent of two children and he's half right --- it is inconvenient and it's possibly a "major pain," but it does not compare to the pain of visiting your child at a hospital, or worse yet, planning the funeral of your teenager.

Kathy Haines, Marietta

I am torn on the subject of teen driving; my law practice is supported by these tougher laws. But I do not think rural legislators will allow a law raising the driving age to 17. And a law restricting licenses to make those in the metro area wait a year will be unconstitutional. It would also cause parents (who can afford it) to allow their children to "reside" in rural Georgia for licensing purposes.

Jessica Towns, Lawrenceville

I hope Gov. Roy Barnes' new highway safety initiative means that all the DeKalb and Fulton County police will quit passing me when I am doing the speed limit or am less than 10 mph over it. People have no respect for the laws because they are not being enforced, and because law enforcement doesn't respect them either.

It's sort of disconcerting to be going 60 and be tailgated by a police car. You don't know whether to pull over or speed up.

Cecilia Baxter, Tucker

I was nearly killed by a drunken driver several years ago. That said, I think all of us want the serious and repeat offenders locked up and the key thrown away. But I fear that under the proposed (lower blood alcohol) law, anyone who is not a teetotaler will now be a criminal. My fear is that a person who has had the least bit of alcohol, a glass of wine at dinner, a toast at his daughter's wedding, a beer at the game, would be branded a criminal and have their life ruined.

Edith Collins, Hall County

We know that Atlanta's police force is woefully undermanned, as is the State Patrol. The only way our police can "serve and protect" is by doing so. We need lots more of them, and we need them out on the highways and roads, and we need them now.

I don't feel like I'm exaggerating when I say this situation should be looked at as a deadly epidemic. That false sense of immortality and invulnerability we attribute to teenager drivers is sadly and tragically not confined to the young.

Steven Charles, Vinings