As a member of the task force that recommended overhauling Connecticut’s teen driving laws, I learned a critical lesson from the driving instructors who served with me. Their point was so obvious that I wasn’t sure why it had not occurred to me while I was supervising my son’s driving, but it hadn’t. I suspect now that for most parents, this idea, this key caution, lies just beneath the surface of our consciousness; we are distracted from it by the convenience of having our kids become drivers, or by the simple fact that we naturally dispatch inchoate dangers to the recesses of their minds.
Thus, what I learned from my fellow task force members: If John or Sue has a reason to drive from Point A to Point B, an estimated time of arrival, and a consequence for not arriving on time, the likelihood of a serious crash is relatively low. But when teens drive for the sake of driving, without a particular destination, reason, planned route, or arrival time, trouble starts. If teens are driving for kicks, to get away from parents or something else at home, to spend time with friends, or perhaps to see just what this four-wheeled contraption can do, crash rates are high.
In simplest terms, I learned the difference between “purposeful” and “recreational” driving.
If your child is headed to sports practice or a job at 6:00 a.m. and arriving late will result in extra pushups, less playing time, or docked pay, he or she will drive the shortest, quickest route – and will most likely get there safely. If, however, the evening’s agenda is a ride “somewhere,” to a destination unknown, and with a return time that is merely “sometime before” a curfew, significant motivations for teens to drive safely disappear and factors that can cause a crash take their place. Teens are more likely to practice the safe driving skills they have learned and obey both teen driving and traffic safety laws when their destination itself is a goal. Conversely, when teens drive for entertainment or escape instead of transportation, the priority of safety takes a figurative, and almost literal, back seat.
I recognize that the difference between purposeful and recreational will not always be clear. If a teenage boy is driving cross-town to see his girlfriend and then go to the movies, is that purposeful (the driver has a reason, an ETA, and a consequence) or recreational? Even so, the vast majority of situations where teens get behind the wheel fall into one category or the other.
Parents are the first line of defense against teen drivers getting into situations where the risk of a crash is heightened. If the driving that your son or daughter proposes today, tonight, or tomorrow can be labeled cruising, joyriding, hanging, hauling, dragging, going for a spin, wheeling, tooling, tracking, scoping, surfing, or some 2009 teen slang equivalent that is unknown to an old guy like me, then think twice about allowing your teen to take the keys and go.
I suppose I should mention that my son died during recreational driving, nothing more than a ride with friends.
