On Mon, 6 May 1996 TheHerrs@aol.com wrote:
> I agree, the minimum age should be moved up to 18 for driving. 16 is much too
> young for most teenagers. My kids won't like it, but based upon my inmaturity
> at 16 and that of my friends, I think that the current 16 limit is too young
> (especially for males). My wife was much more mature at 16.
>
Come on! You guys can't be serious! I'm only 19 years old, but in
the roughly 80K miles I've rolled up since my first car when I was 15
years old, I've only had one accident on a road. My ratty '77 300D
slid into a pristine '83 380SL one day in the rain... it was completely
unavoidable in a two-ton car riding on a slicked road coming to a
stoplight. Luckily I was able to manuever the car enough not to hit
him broadside but rather at a 10-degree angle which greatly reduced
the damage potential. Cops came to write up accident but didn't give
me a ticket because they could see I had been driving UNDER (!) the
limit and the prick I hit admitted the same. So why did the 58-year
old prick decide to sue me for assorted "injuries" and demand that I
be taken off the road for my "immaturity and inability to handle
dangerous automobiles on public roads" and damages of $75,000? Who's
being immature here? My insurance which had been $1200 (with a
$250 deductible) went up to $1800 for the next three years. Now, this
June, after 3 years, my insurance should go down and I'm planning to
skip everything except liability on my dad's policy so I only need to
pay $400 annually with a $500 car.
True, there are a lot of stupid teenagers out there, trust me
I've seen some pretty incredible things and wondered how the hell they
didn't kill themselves or others around them. But there are also a
lot of 15 and 16 year olds out there who are great drivers, the only
problem is they want to prove it to the rest of the world. And hey,
everyone of you was sixteen at some point, right? It's only fair that
others get that chance too.
Joey
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