17 year old not passed test - took my car out at 1am in the morning

[ThisBlueQuail]

My 17 year old son who has had 2 driving lessons took my car out at 1am in the morning - would you stop driving lessons?

Tell him it's not a game, it's not like sneaking up in the night to play online, it's real life and he could have killed someone. Dual carriage way too, clearly aiming to do high speeds. It's appallingly bad judgement and he's not ready to drive at all.

He actually committed 3 offences:

• TWOC
• Driving without insurance
• Driving without a licence (because he's got a provisional)

I think I would sit him down, explain that if he had killed someone his TWOC offence would have been aggravated and he could have faced a prison sentence of 14 years.

As it is, he got lucky, so he will have a ban of x weeks from lessons. It needs to be long enough that it hurts, but not so long that he loses hope and thinks it's easier to do it again.

I can’t believe this is even a debate! 100% stop the lessons!

Ultimately he isnt mature enough to be given the opportunity to drive. Id go down on him hard and heavy.
Too many people treat driving and the rules of the road like a game.

Not only would I stop him having lessons I would report him to the police. He is not mature enough to have a licence and could have killed someone. He will do it again.

so not only did he steal a car, drive without a licence and insurance and riski killing an innocent person/people, he drove on the dual carriageway and his only concern is his poor parking?? Stop enabling and protecting him. This may be the first time but it most definitely won’t be the last time. He needs to know the potential gravity of his stupid immature behaviour and needs to be reported to the police and have his lessons suspended u til he grows the fuck uo and can pay for them himself. Are you really prepared to let this go and have him risk the lives of both himself and others??? That would be even crapper parenting on your part.

Bloody hell op
I'm not sure what I would do other rhan be furious. No way pull Di be paying.for lessons until he was responsible enough to have some understanding about what he did
I'd also consider reporting it to police. I prob wouldnr buy he took car without consent, he hasn't passed test, he didn't have qualified person with him

What the f did he take it for? Had he had a drink or drugs at 1am to do thta?
Does he usually have any understanding or expereince of consequences?

That is one hell of a serious thing to do.

For car theft, driving without a licence, and without insurance, I'd hope the police did not waste resources trying to scare someone who just needs to be arrested and charged.

Stop his lessons for a bit let him mature a little more. It is clear he is not mature enough for the level of responsibility.

So i he could have parked the car as it had been would he have said anything?

He doesn't deserve to be learning to drive.

Driving is not an ‘essential life skill’ if you end up dead due to utter stupidity. You don’t have to learn at 17.

Of course stop driving lessons until he has proved he is mature enough. The gentle parents on here are 🙄

No one is saying they don’t. But the poor judgement shown by both of you was due to immaturity. The fact you got your mate to drive back to hide it rather than fessing up is even worse. Teens can be impulsive for sure, but if they are still at that stage of development and therefore immature at 17 they should not be driving.

PrincessofWills

TWOC
Taken without Consent is law that was broken.

I cannot understand how the car was taken in the early hours with out the owner immediately reporting to the police before discovering it was their own son.

It was joyriding and I would also report to the police the others who were in the car or involved in the ‘dare’ and contact their parents too.

Id also inform this child of the accident in Wales last year when all four boys died and not discovered for some days.

If you allow the driving lessons you are handing him the keys perhaps not to your car but to the cars of his mates.

As someone whose house was damaged by a teenager who TWOC’d his Mum’s car and buggered off, and whose husband was in another incident nearly killed by a dangerous driver and has to live with life-altering consequences as a result - I’d damn well throw the book at him. I’d report him to the police because, as pp said, he’s done several illegal things at once.

The lowlife who damaged our house when he careered off the road had a mother who, when confronted with where her car was, simply wrung her hands and lamented how was she going to get to work? Not a word of anger about her son, not a word of an apology to us. Don’t be that mother.

Take those keys away and report him to the police. Or you are that ineffectual mother.

HelenaWilson Noted.
The driving public are put at risk all the time, by definition of driving. I live in a part of the UK where 70% of drivers are 75+ years, about 1% of them uses an indicator and there eyesight is a treat! A test examiner wouldn’t pass him if he was unsafe.

I agree, actions have consequences! It’s better to have the fear of the law than him lying on a slab waiting to be identified! I’ve two friends who’ve had to endure this with their teenage sons who lost their lives in car accidents thinking their can drive like they do in GTA. I do wish there would be more legislation around younger people or inexperienced new drivers who they can carry as passengers etc. vehicles are weapons in the wrong hands!

A test examiner wouldn’t pass him if he was unsafe.

Are you for real?

A test examiner wouldn’t pass him if he was unsafe.

Are you for real?

Quite. All those 18yos who kill themselves and their friends were presumably passed by examiners.

75yos may be unsafe drivers for other reasons, but they don't tend to go speeding around with a carload of other 75yos.

When you read about a car smash with multiple fatalities, it's almost always 17-19 yos, and usually boys.

Is it not more serious when the person also doesn’t have a driving licence?

Are you for real! How the fuck do you think so many pass their tests! It’s 30 mins on the road they drive how they need to drive to pass FFS!

I would, when he's older and hopefully more sensible then he can pay for his own lessons, tests and car himself. Please drill it into him whatever you have to do to get through to him that if he continues he's either going to 1. Kill himself or 2. Kill someone else and that could be pedestrians, the other driver or/and their passengers or the other people in his car and not only will he be in prison for a very long time, that'll be something he'll have to live with for the rest of his life.

I can't believe you are actually asking this question