17 year old boys driving a car-full of mates

As well as stupid, the parents must be rich enough not to care what they spend. Alfa Romeo for a teenager, and then the insurance? Insurance can be thousands just for a bog-standard car.

And why the hell were so many of these dead teens not wearing seatbelts? Showing off, I guess.

Blimey, not only was this teenager bought an Alfa Oreo, his father actually took speeding points for him. When you have parents that stupid, the law need to be looked at.

Judge criticises parents after teenager jailed for fatal crash in Alfa Romeo

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/f0972020-204e-4fe4-8176-d5690eeaa7b0?shareToken=349501809703525143324d9605fabe2d

At no point during driving lessons do kids get to practice with 3 or 4 other adults (or teens) in the car, maybe being loud, leaning and lurching about, generally winding each other up. The sort of car they’re likely to be driving will handle completely differently with two or three adults in the back and they just don’t understand what effect it has on their ability to brake without losing control. They all think they’re invincible, until they’re not.

It certainly could. A lovely young man I know was in a friend's car with two others when the friend clipped a grass verge and rolled it. The poor guy now has brain damage and will probably never be able to work or live independently.

I drive past where it happened sometimes and it makes me feel so sad, and angry.

As far as I know in Switzerland young drivers are (or at least used to be) limited to driving very low powered cars until their twenties.

The boys killed near Bedale in the last year or so were in a high powered car, which made it feel less of a tragic accident and more like murder to locals.
Maybe only allowing young drivers to insure small slow cars would lower the number of these awful accidents. Introducing a blanket “no insurance available” until a later age would surely be easy to implement.

Raising the age is a lot easier than trying to police the number or age of passengers in a young drivers car.

Sadly, both my SIL and a family friend lost their teenage brother in a car accident very shortly after passing their driving test and starting to drive at 17 years old.

Raising the driving age to 18 would make far more sense than the suggestion that young drivers should be limited on the age of their passengers.

TBH many 17 yos are price out of driving because of the cost of insurance anyway.

Absolutely not being unreasonable - last summer locally to me 4 young teen boys car hit a tree - 3 of them died. All 17/18. Heartbreaking.

Driving age needs raising. Present age was introduced when the majority of kids left school at 15 and had been working a couple of years and were generally more mature. The majority are in education well past 18 now. Parents come on here asking if it's OK to leave 15 year olds for an evening!

Difficult. My brother passed at 17 and was a sensible boy. Drove his friends around the first day he passed and he is still here with us 6 years later. I think it really depends on the friend and what he's like as a person.

Yes this was my point - how do you stop them accepting lifts home from friends?

You have to hope the other parents have also put the fear of God in them and they are sensible. But I don’t know how not to worry? Arrghh so not looking forward to this stage. I hope for a change in law soon.

Yes I think I wasn’t clear!

But for the parents who say no way will their kids be getting in cars with their mates - good luck in controlling what they do when they are effectively adults. Thats why a legal change would be much better. I’ve told my son one friend at a time blah blah and not in bad weather but I can’t keep tabs on him 100% of the time, he’s 18 in a matter of days.

@Delatron crossed wires then, I'm talking about providing a car, insurance and lesson on the condition they agree to the rules set by us, if they pay for it themselves I don't think you can.

YANBU

my son has passed his test a couple of months ago and it scares the shit out of me. You need to let them have their freedom as we did growing up but they all want to run before they can walk.🚶‍♂️

I think I meant -by making them save up for a car then the aim is to delay them driving until older-more sensible. But from 17 they will just then get lifts with mates.

How do you stop 17 year old boys from accepting a lift with friends?

Yes you can be strict and say - I’ll only get you insurance/leasons/ a car if you stick to these rules (or make them save up). But then aren’t you pushing them in to getting lifts with friends (who may be less sensible)?

Well no because they'll have their own car to drive which they will likely prefer to do, and the stipulations can be extended to not be a passenger in other cars, the intent is the same. If they want to keep their car, they will still to the rules 🤷‍♀️

I’ve signed the petition and I really wish the government would do something about this.

Yes you can be strict and say - I’ll only get you insurance/leasons/ a car if you stick to these rules (or make them save up). But then aren’t you pushing them in to getting lifts with friends (who may be less sensible)?

There just needs to be a law against 17 year olds driving around with multiple passengers.

I would happily go and get my son from anywhere at any time to avoid this but how do you actually get them to make that choice rather than hop it to a car with their mates which will be more fun? My son is only 15 and I’m already worried about this

I think that this is right. Learning to pass the driving test is not the same as actually driving. I took my test 9 months after my first lesson with lots of extra practice driving between lessons. Real world practice is needed.

@yickytee learning in a two month period means that a new driver likely hasn’t had the opportunity to drive in all weather conditions, whilst under the watchful eye of an instructor. I’d prefer them to have done that before being out on their own.

@Spacecowboys you don't learn to drive until you're actually driving, I wouldn't elongate the pre test period as I don't think that would develop driving skills especially well, but I would but more restrictions in place post licence like curfews, and perhaps some additional steps like a motorway course.

I’m with you on this and wouldn’t have allowed it either. I also don’t get what the rush is with getting their test passed. You hear it a lot, my dc had two months of lessons then passed his/ her test. Personally, I think learning over a longer period of time has its benefits. I advised my dc not to have mates in the car for around six months. I’d support a law on no passengers under 25 for new drivers for a period of time.

HNRTFT but I was adamant that my teenagers were only ever to have lift if they were the only passenger. I paid for taxis or picked up despite how late it was !
Four boys from our local grammar school were tragically killed in an accident just before my oldest started driving. I absolutely would not agree to any of my children being ferried around by that age group…doesn’t matter how sensible you think they are !!

@yickytee I’ve thought exactly the same thing, but I don’t know which is the worse scenario to worry about.

@Globetrote I've always worried how vulnerable smart car drivers are though, I wouldn't fancy being in an accident in one. Especially with all these SUVs on the roads now.