yes it is tragic in what happened. On the lighter side my nephew start racing go-karts at 12, there is a lot of kids involved in sports like that and yes it is also dangerous, but it does teach them a little about driving. Just a thought...

 

Ok first off in NY state. Its illegal to have an 16 year old with a learns permit to drive past 10:00 P.M. Regardless if adults were in the car. I'm thinking the passangers had to be drunk or intoxicated becasue they allowed her to drive. They had more passangers then the car had intended for. I wonder if the traction control had anything to do with it. Afterall the younge girl did not have much driving experience. It said the car did roll over. Therefore the frame did support and protect the people with seatbelts on. My dealer expalined to me that there are front and rear roll bars. So they HHR did its job right. I'm sure that car is Totaled. I wonder if GM would send there own investagator to check it out

 

first condolences go to those involved...Now if the HHR rolled several times numerous conditions including speed were involved. The belted passengers stayed in the vehicle and survived, giving credence to the vehicle saftey performance. 16 year olds and drivers licenses, in my opinion there are those young adults that are responsible enough to have a limited use license for work, school etc, but to turn most 16 year olds free with licenses is just not smart. All of us with a few years under our belts can reflect and in my case thank God that I survived those early driving days. The things my friends and I did with our cars could have easily killed us and others so I kept as tight a reign as possible on my sons and they still managd a couple of speeding tickets.

 

That is very sad - but at least they weren't riding in a PT Loser!

I'm afraid the death toll would have been much higher.

 

Some thoughts to share....

First, requirements for getting a license are no better today than when I got mine in 1962, except that we had to sweat out parallel parking back then.

As for experience, a few years ago Virginia went through that issue, mostly due to pressure from parents who had sadly lost teens. Permit age went up from 15 to 15-1/2 and licence age went from 16 to 16 & 3 mo. There were more restrictions also, mostly to do with hours and number of passengers. What did that accomplish with regards to age? Absolutely nothing! It takes anyone time to get the experience needed to cope with driving regardless of the age. All that happened is that a slight age shift took place.

As a parent who sweated my teen daughter (now 19) getting her license, especially that totally helpless feeling when they go off alone for the first time, let me fill you in on something that I believe is one of the best programs for teen drivers.

I made her take an advanced accident avoidance training school at a race track. They were very comprehensive in what was covered, both in class sessions and on the track. They were taught skid control and recovery, emergency braking, avoidance moves and time on a wetted skid pad, and also safe recovery when you get off the pavement, which is apparently what happened in the accident mentioned. The instructors were excellent. I would recommned this type of program to anyone with teen drivers and I saw a few adults there also.

A few months after the school, my daughter encountered a bad snow storm on her way home from visiting her mom in another state. She told me how glad she was to have taken the school, because the car slipped a couple of times and she was able to react with knowledge, confidence and safety.

For anyone in the NoVA area, the school is run by Bill Scott Racing at Summit Point, WV, just west of the DC area. Their number is: (304) 725-6512. I'm sure tracks in other parts of the country have similar programs. Highly recommended!

 

I wish something like that had existed here when my sons were licensed. I took them out to a large and empty parking lot and taught them steering control, recovery, proper braking and showed them the "fun" stuff power sliding etc. We limited free driving until they proved to me that they were responsible and understood the power that they were weilding and then we built cars for them, making them build sweat equity as well as cash invested into the vehicles that we set them off in, that and the grace of God has kept them safe...so far.

 

I let my 5yo daughter drive the HHR on my lap on the back roads everynow and then. I have a 19 yo who wrecked her cougar 6 times in 2 years. She now drives a PT(its still in one piece).

 

I think the driving age should be 18 for every state..

 

I don't think the driving age make a difference because it's all about experience. A 14 year old that doesn't know how to drive is the same as a 50 year old that doesn't know how to drive.

 

Inexperience is inexperience. Whether it's 15, 18, or 20 years old. My line of work gives me the unfortunate opportunity to see a lot of teen crashes and deaths. Most of these incidents are due to sheer recklessness or alcohol. My parents did a fabulous job teaching me to drive. I still did a lot stupid crap behiind the wheel. Luckily, I never hurt anyone, including myself. I think it is good to show children the carnage that can come out of a car crash. I think the vehicle dynamics training is awesome. It shows new drivers what can easily happen when you lose control. In this article, it does appear that inexperience was the culprit. Inexperienced drivers often do not guage their speed properly for a curve. Once they start to lose it, they tense up and cannot take corrective action. It's a sad, sad accident