Picture this:  Your teen, a licensed driver for several months, receives a ticket from a police officer for violating some provision of your state’s teen driver laws – speeding, illegal passengers, on the road after curfew, violating cell phone restrictions, some type of moving violation. The teen pleads with you that “I didn’t do it!,” or the police made a mistake, or the officer singled her out from among other drivers whose driving was much worse because she’s a teenager.  Or the police were sneaky, lying in wait behind a sign or a tree.  “It’s just not fair!” pleads your young driver.  This was her first direct encounter with the police.

A teen driver receiving a ticket sets three things in motion for parents/guardians and teens.  First, the parent and teen need to talk through what happened (and get past the initial denials).  Second, the teen driver and parent need to decide whether they will challenge the ticket or accept the consequences — paying a fine, incurring driving record points, or receiving a license suspension.  Third, parent and teen need to decide when they are going to respond.

This third decision is important.  It is influenced by the fact that there is almost always an administrative lag time between when police issue a ticket and when the government processes the driver’s response or a court issues a hearing date. Every state administers tickets for driving violations differently.   Weeks or even months can elapse between when a ticket is issued to a teen driver and when she receives notice of the penalty for a violation or notice of a court date.  Meanwhile, unless the parent and teen have signed a teen driving contract that results in an immediate suspension, the teen may continue to drive.

For the parent of a teen driver, this situation and these decisions (what happened, how to respond, and when) are a critical teaching moment.  At stake are (1) your teen’s respect for the law in general and teen driver laws in particular; (2) her respect for law enforcement; and (3) her understanding that driving implicates the safety of dozens of other people.  Your approach to each of these issues will affect your teen’s approach to driving.

This concern about parent conduct and guidance is not hypothetical.  In 2007, Massachusetts adopted a mandatory license suspension system for teens who violated its GDLs.  Suspensions started at 60 days for a first offense and went up from there for repeat offenses.  Within months of the start of enforcement, the news media began to report about parents resisting fiercely – screaming at prosecutors and court personnel, doing everything possible to avoid suspensions of their teens’ licenses.  These parents were no doubt angry about the inconvenience of now having to again drive their teens to school and events and losing their new, in-house, pick-up and delivery service.  But what struck me about these news articles was envisioning the teens standing there, watching their parents challenge and disparage police, prosecutors, and court staff.

I recognize that police can make mistakes, and that sometimes they use enforcement techniques such as speed traps that can seem sneaky and unfair.  Police can appear arbitrary when ticketing some while others offenders go unpunished.  Moreover, a police officer stopping a teen driver can create the perception that the teen has been profiled, that is, stopped due to her apparent age rather than her driving. 

But back to the teaching moment and the three issues:  While parents should review with their teens the events that led to the ticket, they should also recognize that factually baseless tickets are a relatively rare occurrence.  From my experience on Connecticut’s teen driving task force, which included state and local police, I conclude that one of the best assurances we have that tickets issued to teen drivers usually have some actual basis is that the police generally have far more responsibilities than they can handle;  they issue tickets only when misconduct genuinely threatens public safety.

If we assume that most tickets have some basis, then we can focus on the key point:  A parent’s reaction and approach to a teen driver’s ticket  presents a critical opportunity to provide several safe driving lessons.  Parents, please:

• Don’t disparage the teen driving laws as baseless or unfair.

• Push back against your teen’s insistence that the police officer was mistaken, arbitrary, vindictive, or stupid.

• Direct your teen to accept the consequence of her action.

• Don’t argue with prosecutors or court staff about your teen’s conduct.

• Don’t let inconvenience or cost to you get in the way of these lessons.

• Don’t delay; have your teen take the medicine. Don’t ask a court for repeated continuances (delays), and don’t make excuses (“She has a quiz/game/lesson”) that pale against safety.

As those of you who have read the “My Story” portion of this blog know, this issue is personal for me.  My son Reid got his license in January 2006, a ticket for a lane-change violation in April, and then a speeding ticket (42 mph in a 25 mph zone) in September.  The second ticket required him to take a four-hour retraining class at the Department of Motor Vehicles.  He had 90 days to schedule it.  He put it off and off and off, until he finally scheduled it for the 89th day, December 2.  He crashed eleven hours before his retraining class was scheduled to begin, and died five hours later.

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