Paying for the car yourself is definately a maturing factor. There is no doubt in my mind that the majority of kids who earned their own money for a nice car treat it with more respect.
O.K. CHildren.... Here goes:
I got my license at fifteen and learned to drive in my dad's 1955 Chevy. I had to be careful, 'cause I sure didn't want to lose my driving privileges.
I bought my own first car at sixteen years of age - before most of you were born. It was an eleven-year-old 1949 maroon Ford 2-door sedan with a flat-head V8. I had to buy my own insurance too. I went to school and worked for 53 cents an hour in a grocery store on afternoons and weekends. That allowed me to independently have wheels to take my "steady" (now, and still, my wife) to 50-cent movies on Saturday nights. I made good grades and was considered responsible, industrious and mature for my age.
Here are the highlights of my first six months of car ownership:
The first thing I did was skid it into a 4" pipe pump-guard at the neighborhood gas station (35 cents per gallon). Didn't even bend the pipe, but bashed the hell out of my passenger door.
Next, I tried to pull a friends car out of a ditch. Tied the rope to my
bumper, and pulled it (the bumper) off.
The old flat-head still had considerable compression left in it, so I did a little "red light racing" whenever challenged. One evening, when the light turned green, I took off and drove straight into a 3-foot-wide pothole at about 50 MPH. Ripped out the whole rear end and ended up 6 inches from a child riding his trike next to his mother on the sidewalk. I pissed my pants, cried real tears, and kissed my beloved Ford goodbye.
So, at seventeen, I was out the $150.00 purchase price and the cost of my J. C. Whitney "mods"... you know, chrome beauty rings ($6.), suicide knob ($1.50), seat covers ($8.), chrome exhaust tip ($2.), fake white sidewalls ($6.), etc. But at least, by God's grace, I didn't kill the child.
SInce then, I've had too many cars to count. And over the years I have learned to respect the value of a car and the responsibilities associated with driving it. Today, I'm a law enforcement professional approaching retirement, and still considered to be responsible, industrious, and without a doubt... mature. And like anyone else, I
still make errors in driving judgement.
So What's My Point?
While there are
some 16 YO kids who are sensible enough to drive responsibly, and able to understand the intricasies of operating a motor vehicle,
most are not. Until meaningful driver's education is imposed, and the licensed driving age is raised (eighteen seems about right), we will continue to see far more of these tragedies than we otherwise would.
But I doubt I'll live to see that happen.
