Part One - National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Mark V. Rosenker told the Association for Safe International Road Travel on June 16th that an emphasis on the three E's of traffic safety, education, enforcement and engineering solutions would further reduce traffic fatalities. So how are we doing in Missouri?
#1 Education. The responsibility of teaching teens to drive in Missouri is, in most school districts, left to the parents. Once a mandatory class in many high school's, most school districts have eliminated driver's training because of budget restraints. This has left the responsibility of training with parents, who must either train them on there own, or to pay a driving school to do it. Many parents will confess they are ill equipped to perform what can be a harrowing experience. As more hours have been added, with recent changes to the graduated drivers license, more requirements have been put on parents. As one person put it in an AAA release, we require more hours of training to cut hair or clean teeth, than we do to drive a car. It would be easy just to say we need to return the class to our high schools, but that is only half of the story. I graduated in the last 70's from a then mid size suburb high school. I do not remember if the driver's training class was mandatory at the time, or not, but I did take it. And in hindsight, it was kind of a joke.
Taught by a high school sports coach, possibly as a requirement at the time, that coaches may have had to be teachers, it was quite obvious the coach/teacher had no desire to be there. Behind the wheel training was limited to three 45 minute classes, time split with two other teens, in an especially equipped car where the coach had his own brake to push, if needed. Much of this incredibly limited driving time, was training to pass the most difficult part of the driver's test, parallel parking. A task I was able to master quickly (I took my test in a station wagon) and a driving skill I have been called on to use once in the 32 years since. And for those of us waiting our day to drive with the teacher, the class was no more than an unsupervised study hall. So I reiterate, just simply returning driver's education to the school systems, is only part of the story. To properly train teens, not only should we make driver's education a mandatory class, but we must find passionate teachers who truly want to make a difference. Would you rather your teen learn from the football coach, who might have a degree in teaching, or a certified driving instructor? Or an ex-cop, who knows what it is like to knock on a door at night and deliver the most dreaded of messages to unsuspecting parents?
How do we pay for it? Well I guess we can forget all that "the lottery will pay for all our schools needs" nonsense. An idea for consideration. Besides families and friends, who has the most to gain/lose in traffic crashes? Even a fender bender can run into thousands of dollars in damages. And who pays for this? Insurance companies. Has anyone considered asking the insurance companies to fund staff for school systems? We live in a give and take world, so obviously they have to get something out of it. Offer them compulsory attendance backed by the state, a majority voice in setting up the training, testing, and certification, although them to hire and train their instructors, with schools allowed to run criminal history checks. It would not be an independent insurance company, but a consortium of all insurance companies selling auto insurance in the state. Schools would provide classroom space, and scheduling allocation, and be offered proper credit for the time the teens are in this class, pursuant to any other educational requirements made by the state. Obviously, the school must be given some limited control, it is they who inevitably must answer to the parents. The schools must also be offered full immunity from any liability involved with this class. There are other numerous issues, but given the proper motivation, these issues should be easily worked thru. Everybody could get something out of it if they kept teen safety as the primary goal. You may not have a teen driver in your family, but I can guarantee if you are driving on Missouri roads, teen drivers are passing you in the oncoming lane each and every trip. Want them to stay in their lane?
If the politicians, educators, and insurance companies started talking about it today, we could see drivers ed back in our schools by 2010. Then again, not too sure how politicians, educators and insurance companies get along in this state, so it would probably be easier just to forget the whole idea. What are we talking here? The life of a couple hundred teens each year?
#1 Education. The responsibility of teaching teens to drive in Missouri is, in most school districts, left to the parents. Once a mandatory class in many high school's, most school districts have eliminated driver's training because of budget restraints. This has left the responsibility of training with parents, who must either train them on there own, or to pay a driving school to do it. Many parents will confess they are ill equipped to perform what can be a harrowing experience. As more hours have been added, with recent changes to the graduated drivers license, more requirements have been put on parents. As one person put it in an AAA release, we require more hours of training to cut hair or clean teeth, than we do to drive a car. It would be easy just to say we need to return the class to our high schools, but that is only half of the story. I graduated in the last 70's from a then mid size suburb high school. I do not remember if the driver's training class was mandatory at the time, or not, but I did take it. And in hindsight, it was kind of a joke.
Taught by a high school sports coach, possibly as a requirement at the time, that coaches may have had to be teachers, it was quite obvious the coach/teacher had no desire to be there. Behind the wheel training was limited to three 45 minute classes, time split with two other teens, in an especially equipped car where the coach had his own brake to push, if needed. Much of this incredibly limited driving time, was training to pass the most difficult part of the driver's test, parallel parking. A task I was able to master quickly (I took my test in a station wagon) and a driving skill I have been called on to use once in the 32 years since. And for those of us waiting our day to drive with the teacher, the class was no more than an unsupervised study hall. So I reiterate, just simply returning driver's education to the school systems, is only part of the story. To properly train teens, not only should we make driver's education a mandatory class, but we must find passionate teachers who truly want to make a difference. Would you rather your teen learn from the football coach, who might have a degree in teaching, or a certified driving instructor? Or an ex-cop, who knows what it is like to knock on a door at night and deliver the most dreaded of messages to unsuspecting parents?
How do we pay for it? Well I guess we can forget all that "the lottery will pay for all our schools needs" nonsense. An idea for consideration. Besides families and friends, who has the most to gain/lose in traffic crashes? Even a fender bender can run into thousands of dollars in damages. And who pays for this? Insurance companies. Has anyone considered asking the insurance companies to fund staff for school systems? We live in a give and take world, so obviously they have to get something out of it. Offer them compulsory attendance backed by the state, a majority voice in setting up the training, testing, and certification, although them to hire and train their instructors, with schools allowed to run criminal history checks. It would not be an independent insurance company, but a consortium of all insurance companies selling auto insurance in the state. Schools would provide classroom space, and scheduling allocation, and be offered proper credit for the time the teens are in this class, pursuant to any other educational requirements made by the state. Obviously, the school must be given some limited control, it is they who inevitably must answer to the parents. The schools must also be offered full immunity from any liability involved with this class. There are other numerous issues, but given the proper motivation, these issues should be easily worked thru. Everybody could get something out of it if they kept teen safety as the primary goal. You may not have a teen driver in your family, but I can guarantee if you are driving on Missouri roads, teen drivers are passing you in the oncoming lane each and every trip. Want them to stay in their lane?
If the politicians, educators, and insurance companies started talking about it today, we could see drivers ed back in our schools by 2010. Then again, not too sure how politicians, educators and insurance companies get along in this state, so it would probably be easier just to forget the whole idea. What are we talking here? The life of a couple hundred teens each year?
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