HMX-1

I think it did, and folks threw a fit about it because it was all about underage drinking, cell phone use and texting, and inexperience. Nanny State, indeed.

I had my 15 year old recently complete drivers education. I paid for it out of pocket even though his high school offered it. They had some "repeats" that were filling up some of the spots and I would rather him have more personalized teaching than the "express lane" style of instruction they had at school.

He passed with flying colors (99.3%) and his driving instructor said that he was the best student driver he's had in the 10 years of teaching. The other student driver they had was a young lady on her third attempt ..... couldn't understand the whole "P", "R", and "D" thing, and loved the curbs. She even tore some of the balancing weights off the wheels. I have a feeling the only ID she's going to have will be the one for her monthly bus pass.

12valve@heart

Drivers Ed has it's place. Back before the days of kids booster seats, I'd sit in the center of the back seat on our VW bug and watch between the bucket seats as dad worked the clutch and the shifter. Learned by watching. Later, I did take Drivers Ed AFTER I had my license just for the insurance break. One gal (yes, she was blond) in the class couldn't grasp the connection between turning the steering wheel and the directional movement of the front tires so I took her down to the farm and put her on a 40hp tractor out in a pasture where she could actually see what the tires did when she turned the steering wheel until she finally got the hang of how turning the wheel makes the tires turn too.

firestorm

I learned to drive a manual at 12, the same way I am teaching my daughter. We've got 6 acres, and the kids 'practice' driving the golf cart around. My nephew, who is 9, drives it by hisself, while the other kids ride. I let my daughter (7), nieces (3&5), and neighbors kids (3,6,&8) steer, while work the pedals. If my truck is at the shed, I will let my daughter or nephew sit in my lap and drive the truck. I work the pedals, and they steer it all over the pasture, and all day if I'd let them. As far as raising the age limit, all your doing there is delaying the inevitable. Raise the age to 30. Now, no teens and no 20 somethings are gonna die due to inexperienced driving. Instead, the number of deaths involving drivers in their early 30's will go thru the roof. I feel sorry for the parents, but the daughter should not have been in the vehicle with her friends.

Fronty Owner

I would have thought there would have been more people that started driving younger on here...
All my kids started on weekends in the industrial park at 12.
I feel lucky, I had grandparents with hay fields, I started at 5.
Start the truck, pull the shifter down to 1 and stand in the seat and keep it between the hay bails. If I needed to stop, shift to neutral. By 10 or so, the job had grown to backing into the barn and unloading. By 14 it was trips to town for fuel or something.
I drove on public roads a couple years without issue and without a license.
part of the problem today is the cars are too quiet and too comfortable.