Your Child's First Car Accident - Is your Child Ready to Drive?
It's that moment you never want to experience. Your novice driver's first car accident. My 18-year old daughter was just days away from getting her California driver's license when a car rammed into her from behind. A car colliding to her rear bumper means it was not her fault, as most of you know. Nonetheless, it is nerve racking and scary to get that call from your child informing you that she's been in a car accident.
My daughter was driving with another adult, getting some practice in before her test next week. She's been driving well for months, getting highway and city traffic experience. She's diligent, cautious and careful.
My daughter wasn't one of those overly excited teens who at precisely 15 and-a-half years of age was eager to start driving. She was more than happy to let me continue my role as her chauffeur. But my husband and I encouraged her to get her license, not just so she could establish more independence, but so she could help out the family too. We looked forward to her picking up her two younger sisters from school or taking them out to a movie and picking up a few groceries.
We've noticed a number of our friends whose children are of age, but not eager to jump on the driver band wagon. Are our children becoming too complacent - is the thrill of driving and having that sense of independence gone? It seems that way with a number of my friends' children. Their children are happy to let mom and dad chauffeur them around town, heck I'd like that too!
In any case, I digress here, or perhaps these two things are related. Are teens who are more eager to get their driver's license better drivers? If my daughter wasn't encouraged by my husband and me to take her driver's education class and get her learner's permit, she might never show the motivation to drive. But just because she is of legal driving age, does that mean she's ready?
Continued on the next page
Follow Technorati