Here go those lawyers again, thinking like adults when they’re trying to fix teenage problems. Problem: Kids dropping out of school. Solution:Ummmm, I know, let’s take away their driver’s license!

This is what the lawmakers here in Ontario have done. The politicians have decided that any Ontario teen under the age of 18 who drops out of high school will have their driver’s license revoked.
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The Discovery Channel is following up the successful Canada’s Worst Driver show with a second season. We watched Monday’s episode and it was pretty funny. But what struck me most is the choice of expert judges.

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Things are incredibly busy here in The Garage today, so it’s a good time for a video. Oh and what a video. Shell’s upcoming Hooked on Driving DVD is looking like it may be one of the best driver training aids ever produced. Sample clip #3 covers one of the questions most often asked by aspiring drivers, How do I heel & toe and why?

In an effort to curb bad drivers, the City of Toronto has enlisted the talents of Steve Fenton and his School of Bad Driving. Rather than the usual boring PSA type ads the City is known for, this is Revenge of The Nerds taking on Downtown Tdot. During filming yesterday, Mr. Fenton drove up a curb on Queen Street and knocked over a fake no parking sign.

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Two time Formula 1 World Champion and two time dad Mika Hakkinen and DaimlerChrysler have teamed up with a new project called MobileKids. Aimed at kids and teens, MobileKids teaches kids how to be smart on the road, from seatbelt use to helmet use when riding a bike. This is a great program, now if they can just figure out a way to get all those parents out there to teach by example, all of our kids would be safer.

another pic and the press release after the break

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It’s 1:30 in the morning on a dead end street. A sober 17 year old doesn’t see all the dead end signs and at only 70 kmh, he jumps the curb at the end of the road and plows into a light post and a car on the lot in front of BMW Canada. The Chevy Lumina the kid was driving had to be towed.

Now I get the stupidity of a teenager. I was a teenager and I remember crashing into things because I was going too fast. That was a rally driver wannabe on a winding, deserted road. BMW Canada and the adjacent dealership are very brightly lit and the road out front is almost 4 lanes wide. The court at the end of the street is gigantic. There are Dead End signs all the way down the road.

The kid was only travelling about 70 kmh which is about 43 mph for our American readers. How the hell does one lose control under these conditions? Obviously, the kid isn’t the brightest of bulbs, as his graduated license doesn’t allow him to be out driving after midnight without a fully licensed driver in the car. Even still, he wasn’t moving that fast for the area. He was clearly way over his head, or beyond the capabilities of the Lumina. Either way this kid needs help.

Poor driver training or stupid kid? I don’t have the answer, but I suspect that if we taught car control rather than just parallel parking, we’d have less of these daft incidents.

Source Durham Region News