Dangers of Newspaper Forum's

There is an old saying that "it is better to remain silent and thought a fool, than to open one's mouth and remove all doubt". Thanks to modern technological advances, the anonymity of the web offers anyone with a thought, an avenue to spew their wit and wisdom for others to read. Some may well think this site is nothing but, and this great country offers you the right to have that opinion. This webmaster would like to go on record as saying that those who feel it is necessary to start passing judgment in media forum's about teen crashes, are similar to the hit and run driver, who cowardly flees a scene after leaving devastation in their wake. Family members, reeling in shock and grief, do not need to read the speculation and opinion's by anonymous parties on why their child perished. You have the right to write anything you want, but class dictates there is a time, and a place to express these type's of opinion's .... and some are best left to ones self. Family members - forum's on media sites are a place where some of the most callous and heartless people, hiding behind the protective anonymity their fictitious screen name offers, will spew some of the most insensitive garbage possible. Do yourself a favor. Avoid newspaper forum's.

Quoting statistics

Be careful quoting statistics from any website, including this one. Verify what you can. Once something is in print, no matter how erroneous, it will be repeated and soon become accepted as fact.

For instance, which of these statements appearing on government or news media websites, are true, and which have been "fabricated"? 1. A teenager is killed in a car crash every 64.5 minutes. 2. Teenage drunk driving is the cause of one quarter of all motor vehicle accidents 3. One teen is killed in the United States every 60 minutes because of teen drunk driving. 4. In 2005, approximately 3467 teens were killed and 281000 more injured. 5. According to historical data from The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one in eight teens is likely to drive after drinking alcohol this holiday season, and 30 percent of American teens this month will ride with a driver who has been drinking alcohol. Additionally, statistics show that in 2003, 27 percent of 16- to 20-year-old passenger vehicle drivers fatally injured in crashes had blood alcohol levels of 0.08 percent or more, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. 6. In 2005, approximately 3,467 teens were killed and 281,000 more suffered injuries due to driving under the influence. 7. Teenage drunk driving is responsible for about one in every four motor vehicle accidents. 8. Every year, more American teenagers die in car wrecks than any other way. Nationally, that number was 5,610 fatalities in 2004. 9. A teenager is injured in a car crash every 55 seconds. A teenager is killed in a car crash every 6.5 minutes.

(It is quite obvious that #3 & #9, although widely used, are not possibly true, using the figures in #4, which is a government published figure, or #8.. #1 might have been true years ago, but with 8760 hours in a year, you can do the math. #6 blames every teen fatality recorded in drunk driving!! #7 is just absurd. The message to teens is real ... please don't cloud it with bogus 'facts'. If you expect teens to drive like adults, respect them with the truth. And if you find something wrong on our site, please let us know. We don't need to make up facts to make teens dieing in car crashes worse than they already are.)

Three E's of Reducing Teen Traffic Related Deaths

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?

Why the blog?

I have been operating Operation Stop for nearly 3 years now and occasionally, I come across news items that I would like to comment on, or just didn't quite warrant making it on the web site. Here we will discuss things like the "politics" behind car crashes. We might look at incidents in greater detail, if we feel it can assist in the overall discussion. And we might address other issues of interest to Missouri teens, or Missourians in general. Much of what is expressed on this blog might be classified as personal opinion, and personal opinions are much like armpits. Everyone has a couple, they serve no real purpose, and only we think our own don't stink.

It also offers readers an opportunity to participate. You are free to post comments, as long as it is done respectfully ... both to the forum, and to the families and friends of victims. These people are hurting and do not care what you, or I might think of why their loved one died. If you are posting in reference to a particular crash, please note that it is our policy to name only the deceased in a crash, and to NOT name others that might be hurt or responsible. While these names might be public record, it is our own policy to keep these names off the site, and this blog.

Please drive like your life depends on it - because it does!!

By taking credit, you accept responsibility

I recently read a newspaper article from Southeast Missouri, where an officer with the Highway Patrol was quoted as stating his department's strong enforcement was responsible for the decrease in deaths over the last holiday weekend. Traffic fatalities are down in most parts of the state, thanks to the concerted efforts of thousands of law enforcement officers, transportation workers, traffic safety engineers, vehicle safety engineers, emergency workers, the list goes on and on. This year, the decline is dramatic in most states thanks in a large part, to the increased price of gas. Less miles are being driven nationwide, according to every study published in the last few months. Only two other years have seen such a steep decline in traffic fatalities ... during the oil embargo and the two year period when states were required to raise the drinking age to 21.

The Missouri Highway Patrol is an outstanding organization and is to be credited for their part in the reduction in fatalities. But anyone taking credit when the numbers are favorable, must assume the responsibility when they are less so.