A Pro-Life Message from Moonhowlings.net
Every year about this time, at least one carload of kids is needlessly snuffed out. If calling attention to this killing time saves one kid, then our “ink” has been well-spent. Parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles! Please become involved.
The Washington Post article “Proms, graduations and teen crashes: The worst season for police official and father” is a must read by everyone. It features Captain Tom Didone and his efforts to save young lives. Three years ago Capt. Didone lived every parent’s worst nightmare–his own child was senselessly killed in a crash. He was called to the scene. If you have never been close to this situation, you are fortunate. I have been and I remain scarred. My child lived. Someone else’s didn’t. Now I fear it for my grandchildren.
This time of year seems to bring about more crashes and more deaths than any other time of year. Young folks think they are immortal. Their youth and exuberance reinforces this misconception. Proms and graduations bring about the spirit of celebration. The kids have their entire lives before them….or do they?
Our area holds a higher risk element than some other geographical areas simply because we have so much traffic. The more vehicles, the greater the chance of a close encounter with one of them. Our kids also have texting to contend with. You only have to look away for a second and a second is all it takes to go from living to dead. Statistics tell us everything about alcohol and driving. What they haven’t told us up until recently is how much greater the likelihood of teen accident is with the number of passengers in the car. A car full of exuberant young people is distracting. Throw in loud music, a sense of immortality, relative lack of driving experience, a gang of friends and there is a read- made recipe for disaster.
Parents can reduce risk by talking to their kids about all of these factors that contribute to teen death. They can make hard rules about texting and number of passengers. They can create amnesty rules. What are amnesty rules? Tell your child that you don’t care what hour of the day or night, you will come pick them up without any fear of reprisal or punishment if there has been drinking or if the teen feels like the transportation situation is not safe. Stick to it.
Pay for a limo. Volunteer to be a taxi driver for a night. Reflect. Figure out why you made it to adulthood. Was it pure luck or did someone do something special to make sure you survived your own recklessness?
Remind your child how life would be without them. Perhaps they need to hear that a lot this time of year.
Police Captain Tom Didone is trying to do his part to see that no other parent goes through what he has endured. He cannot do it alone.
Meanwhile, our PRO-LIFE legislators here in Virginia fail year after year to codify a texting ban that has teeth. A $20 fine is nothing. The lawmakers continue to make excuses. PRO-LIFE isn’t just for fetuses and fertilized eggs.
Current restrictions:
- All drivers are banned from text messaging. $20 fine (first offense) then $50.
- Drivers under the age of 18 are prohibited from using cell phones or text messaging.
- School bus drivers are prohibited from using cell phones or text messaging
What is the fine for teens under the age of 18? Is there a fine or penalty? $20 is chump change.
If you are under age 18, you may carry only one passenger under age 18 during the first year that you hold your driver’s license. After you have held your license for one year, you may carry only three passengers under age 18 until you reach age 18. Learner’s permit holders may not carry more than one passenger under age 18. Passenger restrictions do not apply to family members.
Violations of either the curfew or passenger restrictions can result in the suspension of your driver’s license.
Virginia’s cellular telephone law restricts a driver under age 18 who holds a learner’s permit or driver’s license from using any cellular telephone or any other wireless telecommunications device, regardless of whether such device is or is not hand-held. If you are under age 18, you can only use a cell phone or any other telecommunications device:
- for a driver emergency;
- when the vehicle is lawfully parked or stopped.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Teen Driver Facts
It is going to take a village to raise our children and to ensure that they reach adulthood safely. These next few weeks will be critical for some. Let’s do what we can to share information and to support each other. Talk to your child, talk to the friends, and talk to your child’s friends’ parents. Always follow your gut instinct. It often tells you. Perhaps I have been harsh on our lawmakers. These restrictions were a long time coming. I want other drivers to have very strict penalties for texting while driving. Other older drivers can kill us and our kids also.
There are times when I, and I imagine others like me, wonder how we ever made it to 30. God, my friends and I would go out on Saturday nights, and we would (3 of us) stop and pick up a case of beer to drink on the way to where we were going. I suppose when my boys grow up, I’ll be treated to my own special brand of heartburn.
Whatever you did bad and stupid, kids will always out smart you and be badder and stupider it seems.
It is totally scary. I don’t know how I made it to adulthood and I wasn’t a wildchild.
And that is why my daughter is not dating or getting a license until I choose the right man she’s going to marry! Everything is to dangerous past the age of 14. 😉
Here here Cargo! I’m a DADD, too. Dads Against Daughters Dating.
I remember the really, really dumb things I did growing up. One time I hung on the hood of someone’s car while they drove around Dale City.. Now as a dad I want to bubble wrap the world for the kids. 😉
@marinm
I have that T-shirt and I wear it to her school.
All kidding aside, what suggestions do you have for keeping kids safe on the roads this time of year, not just girls?
Parent them well. Teach them right from wrong. Demonstrate what good judgment is and pray that they’ll use it.
It’s all you can do…
Well, that and you can deploy a drone and other tracking device(s) to ‘see’ what they’re doing at all times. Biometric remote relay would be a tad too obvious …
This is all for the girl of course. I don’t care what the boy does as long as he doesn’t get someone prego or land himself in jail.
marin, I hope you are kidding. You really do hope your son does right. He represents your family.
What difference does it make what the girl does then? Are you that hung up on virginity or is it the idea that the marins might have a single mom in he family?
I have no new ideas. All of the warnings appropriate to staying alive while driving have been repeated ad nauseum. I’m just trying to instill safe habits in my daughter so that she doesn’t even realize that she’s using them. Seat belts – ON. Texting while driving – not only NO but the idea that those who do are unsafe idiots. Drinking – permissible under adult, safe conditions (not applicable now, of course) Guns – all guns are loaded…etc/ Don’t touch, leave the area, get an adult.
Those are pretty smart rules. Now, if someone shares your ideas as part of instilling safety in their kid, you never know….
thanks. I hadn’t thought of the gun one….
Talking on the phone at all while driving…we adults haven’t set a very good example here.
@Moon-howler
My wife rolls her eyes everytime I say stuff like that.. Sometimes she’ll use my full name, too.
I’m latino. It’s a cultural thing. I get a free pass for it.
“Guns – all guns are loaded…etc/ Don’t touch, leave the area, get an adult.”
Eddie Eagle!
Speaking of dangers…. prescription cough syrup, skittles, and Arizona watermelon “tea”
Its called “lean.” Just learned about it. Yet ANOTHER freaking thing to look out for. All our parents had to look for was smoking and booze. And some grass.
Cargo reference the popular song Like a G6 by Far East Movement. Nerd version is Roll a D6.
Both available on YouTube.
There are crazy things to look for now a days. Used to warn the agents I worked with to look for web cameras in kids rooms that by default could broadcast video to the world……………….