Comigj&ntary 3.
Who are the worst drivers of all? We've all seen it—that car just ahead behaving as if its driver got a license in a Cracker-Jack box. And when we catch a glimpse of the driver, sure enough, it's a... Well, you make the call! Who really is the worst behind the wheel?
Who has the highest risk of dying ] in an auto accident? •Teenage drivers make up just six percent of all drivers, yet they account for 16 percent of crash fatalities. •More 16-year-old drivers die in autos than any other age group. •More than 30 percent of all adolescents who die are killed in automobiles. •44 percent of teenagers killed in autos were in single car crashes, such as losing control and hitting a tree, nearly twice the rate of older drivers. I 'Teenage drivers are six times more I Uikely to be involved in an accident Vhan all other age groups combined. vnan ai Sources: Daily Herald, Chicago Tribune, Legislative Report
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by Karin Vonesh I enjoyed a rare opportunity a few weeks ago. I was able to catch a glimpse of what goes on outside Maine South during school hours. Zooming out of the Jock Lot, destination doctor's office, I began to experience a strange phenomenon. Cars appeared to be driving themselves. It was as if every vehicle on the road was in slow motion. After a few moments of thought, I realized that the cars were not being manuevered by phantoms, but instead by senior citizens, who had emerged firom their homes to run their weekly errands. Perhaps their seemingly frozen state was a result of seeing a high schooler behind the wheel during the hours they saw as sacred. Obviously shocked by the sounds of rock-and-roll music coining from my car, their concentration was skewed and they were rendered unable to drive. My trip, which normally should take no more than ten minutes, became a gruelling twenty minutes in length. Attempting to restrain myself from using my horn as accompaniment for the string of obscenities that came pouring out of my mouth, I concentrated on the road and was lucky to reach my destination in one piece. Surely every American under the age of fifty has experienced some form of this exasperation. I
have memories from a young age in which my father is yelling about "blue hairs" and their inability to drive. And everyone remembers that scene in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off' in which the old lady cannot see over the steering wheel and is swerving down the road. Elderly drivers are both aggravating and amusing to us, dependant on the circumstances. They can also become hazardous, as I was made aware by Ann Landers. In her October 6 column entitled "More horror stories about elderly drivers," a series of tragic stories illuminated the worst-case scenarios. "Ft. Myers, Fla.: I know an 85-year-old man from Ohio who received his driver's license by mail. This man ran over 'three trash cans' and left the accident scene, not knowing he had killed three little girls. He was not required to have a doctor's test or an eye test, and he thought he ran over three trash cans." Many Americans enjoy the convenience of renewing their driver's licenses through the mail, but such a situation can become dangerous when those unqualified to drive are issued licenses. So what am I, as a license-carrying, VW-driving teenager, supposed to do? Stay out of Florida and Arizona, states almost entirely populated with senior citizens? Cruise down the street and scream loudly at anyone over 50? Or, perhaps, something should be done in the way of legislation.