How does a Cobb County legislator on a quixotic campaign to strengthen teen driving laws suddenly become your new best friend?

Try waking up on a Sunday morning to the news that two Cobb County teenagers in a Camaro were killed overnight, apparently while drag racing. And in the split second before reason returns, you remember that your 16-year-old son left in his Camaro to spend the night with his 16-year-old friend.

YOUR TURN

Should the state raise the legal driving age to 17?   Yes. The recent deaths prove 16 is too young. 66% 1133   No. There are better ways to increase safety. 34% 577 Total Votes   1710

Of course, my son Chris had followed the rules and called home to report he'd arrived safely at his friend's house on Saturday night. I knew where he was and I trust his friend's parents.

The teenagers killed had been Chris' classmates at Lassiter High School. Like Chris, a junior at the school, the teen who drove the Camaro had been unable to get a coveted parking spot on campus. Jerrod Norman would park his Camaro next to Chris' at the nearby movie theater where Chris works part time. He worked at the Ace Hardware store across the road, a polite young man whose name I never knew, but who seemed to enjoy his job.

He loved that car, Chris said.

Apparently, like so many other teens with illusions of immortality, he loved speed, too.

It could just as easily have been Chris as the driver of the yellow Mustang who apparently got into a deadly drag race with Jerrod and his friend on Saturday night.

"Last week, he tried to get me to drag race with him," my son told me Sunday. "He was weaving in and out of the lanes, between the cars to pull up alongside me.

"I ignored it," he said. "I hear every day at school about a ticket or an accident, and it's not going to be me.

"It's really weird, knowing that he's dead now," Chris said somberly after visiting the scene of the accident on Chastain Road. Several friends had been worried it was his car in the wreck, he said.

I don't presume to understand the mind of a 16-year-old in a fast car. Chris bought his own car, a 1989 Camaro that he restored with his meager movie-theater wages. He pays the insurance and gas and incidentals for his pride and joy, and unlike his bedroom, the car's so clean you could eat off the mats. I like to think that the special stake he has in his car makes him more careful.

Republican State Sen. Phil Gingrey of Cobb County is tired of the tragedies. He's an obstetrician who doesn't want to attend any more funerals of those he brought into this world.

"I know I sound like a broken record every time something like this happens," says Gingrey, whose legislation to restrict teen driving failed earlier this year in the Legislature.

"My heart goes out to the families," Gingrey said this week. "But if we had kept this kid off the road just one more year ... maybe none of this would have happened.

"My belief is that none of them at age 16, whether first in their class or last in their class, is ready to be on the road."

Gingrey will try again next year to legislate limits on teen drivers. He plans to pre-file his legislation in November and hopes for agreement on 40 hours of driving instruction, raising the license age to 17, expanding the curfew to 11 p.m.-6 a.m. and limiting passengers to one. He'll meet next week with Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor and in November with Gov. Roy Barnes, to discuss restrictions.

"I think the lieutenant governor truly wants to do something," Gingrey says. "If anything was nonpartisan, this is it."

I have a 14-year-old who's looking forward to driving. He's already offered to buy Chris' car.

Did I mention I have a new best friend?

Benita M. Dodd is a member of the Atlanta Journal editorial board. Her column appears occasionally.