Good to hear he is okay.

Like state before whiplash is horrible, i was in an accident nearly 2 years ago and i still have back issues.

 

I hope everyone will be fine. Sometimes it takes a while before the extent of the injuries are known. The young girl did make a mistake and hopefully she learns from it. You do need to remember that we were all young once and did stupid s**t behind the wheel. Thankfully we all survived it with little wear and tear.

 

Foolish answer to the problem IMO. What you just stated that caused the new law was the kid did not recognize the risk and understand the limits of his car. Hence, caused an accident. I know in my younger days, me and a buddy went out (just the two of us) and did a LOT of stupid stuff.... Let's say he tried to make his '88 Chevy Celebrity imitate the General Lee.... I'm surprised that wheels never popped off.

Limiting passengers in the car does not teach kids to respect the power of the car. IMO - Mandatory driving classes on an AutoCross course would do better. I know some may disagree, but here's why:
- It's a controlled environment
- Speaking from experience, as a guy who wrecked a Camaro in a bad winter driving accident, I had a deja vu moment going to hot into a slalom on an autocross course with that same Camaro about two years later (much better outcome though, no accident and I felt I learned a lot more about the handling).
- You can safely push a car to it's limits, learn how it handles AND how easily you can loose control of it even in BEST conditions because you made a wrong call (again, see example above)
- You wanna race? Put it on a track, put it in a sanctioned event. Play Fast and the Furious but not on the street.

I've met a LOT of parents at events that MAKE there kids autocross when they get a license. It teaches them respect for the car, helps improve "how to handle" bad situations and a host of other things.

That is what should get built into our Drivers Ed, no different then practicing maneuverability.

Sorry for the rant. No matter what, I am glad no one is seriously hurt and your dad is OK. I hope he took a little something NOW for pain. As stated, I was hit similar to your dad. Tomorrow is when he will be feeling it (if anything like me, he'll notice it at each stop sign when turning his head side to side).

 

Firstly i'm glad everyone was ok. I agree with Taz some type of advanced training would be good in these cases. In Michigan they do have strict standards compared to years ago but I still think the put too much emphasis on parking and not enough on important things like defensive driving or driving in weather.

Jason I think they limit the amount of people to remove some of the distraction.

 

Good to hear everyone was ok. Distracted driving is a huge problem among teenagers. I do alot of driving especiallly going to and from college in the NY/NJ Metro areas. I always watch my mirror when i stop, watching for someone who might slam into me. Maybe i can get that extra half second to move to lessen my damage or prepare to get hit.

About a month or so ago kids doing stupid things while driving got them selves killed. Tried passing doing over 100mph in a non passing zone. Slammed into an oncoming car. Kids need to get better education on the dangers of driving, a car is not a toy its a weapon. I'm waiting for the time i get rear ended to the point where it causes damage. I've been bumped 3 times so far but no damage. Only time will do, excuse my long winded post:p

 

We also have that law in MN. I got my license the first year it was put into effect here.
And its good that nobody was hurt. As a demo derby driver I can guarantee that he will be sore tomorrow lol

 

Glad you Dad wasn't hurt bad. People seriously need to pay more attention when operating a motor vehicle.

 

I know that's why, but I don't think that's the "fix". Distractions are everywhere. Phones, bill boards, why does the cop have some one pulled over..... What kids need is a shot to feel what it's like to NEED to react OR see what they thought would work fails, but in a safe environment.

Some kids get behind the wheel and think "I'm safe, it's dry our, I got AWD, 4 wheel disc, ABS, this thing should stop on a dime, so what if I take my eyes off the road for one second to do something stupid". They need to see, the car may not stop on a dime if you fail to pay attention. Just my thoughts.... Everyone has a different view.

 

Ohh man glad he's ok, hard impact for sure it looks like

 

I'm with you ENTIRELY - thing is I'm just biased towards hating kids. Let me explain, I work for a company that does network work for school districts. We have our building which is the ISP hub for all the schools we service, but to actually work on the schools network we don't host them at our building so we have to go to the schools - each tech has their own district to master at. The district I'm at has the master servers at the high school so I'm primarily there, so I hear kids talk about how they failed the maneuverability part of their drivers license test 3 times, but they're a good driver.... I hear that all too much "I'm a good driver" -- you've been driving for what? A month? It just annoys me that we aren't stricter on young drivers - and yes there's crappy adult drivers too but maybe if we crack down on people when they first start driving they'll become better adult drivers too.

Especially up here, you hear all the kids talk about how they spun out in the snow and what-not, well why don't we EDUCATE kids how to drive in snow so when they get out on the road in winter they'll have more knowledge of HOW to do it. Most people think 4WD and ABS means they'll be fine in winter, then they go into a slide and panic, over-react and either go into oncoming or into a ditch. That's the major problem - they never saw what can happen in situations and how to react - sure they can tell you in drivers ed what to do in this or that situation but it's completely different to when it happens. To get home I go down a big hill that T's off into another street, going straight puts you in someones driveway - one time I came down in winter and couldn't stop - It scared the **** out of me but I've been in the situation so I knew what to do - a new driver thats never experienced this before would just slam on the brakes and rely on ABS - then they'd spin out.

But that's my opinion - I mean punishment is a good thing for making mistakes but yes, if we educate from the beginning we'll be better off - but I still don't buy that "we all did stupid things as kids" bit - I've NEVER rear-ended someone, I never did "stupid stuff" because I never wanted to wreck my cars - even as a kid, I had pride in my property.