Street racing Mustang vs Vette = tragedy

[Camaro509]

Originally Posted by speedster

...
And it's definitely up to the parents - NOT High School Drivers Ed.

Unfortunately most parents are not up to standard on teaching anything to their kids, specially driving skills. I was fortunate enough to have attended (on the Army's dime) special defensive and offensive driving courses in Germany in the mid to late 80's. I'm no expert by any means, but I have an intimate understanding of 'my' vehicles limitations and capabilities, that I try to share with my driving-age kid.


Kansas just raised their standard driving license age from 16 to 17 this year.
I think that better driving education along with responsible parenting would go much farther in keeping our young drivers alive than just making the age 17 (although it may help marginally).

I lay 100% blame on the individual drivers and the parents for this, not societies rules or regulations, or lack thereof.

[mbavenger]

[QUOTE=Supermans;596753]Even on the track, at that age it is very dangerous. This is why kids out of high school shouldn't be driving 400HP sports cars.. They don't have any common sense yet.. Obviously the kid wouldn't have enough money on his own to buy such a vehicle so young without parental help.. And at that age, they think they are invincible.. Very tragic.. If only parents would simply not get their children race cars so young, these types of accidents could be minimized..



I agree with you no kid should have that much HP, just asking for trouble. Most of us old guys have been there before, no common sense, and invincible. Today I am still amazed that I didn't kill myself with some of the things I did back then. Things you learn with age.

[Thwick]

Originally Posted by bartking

I am so happy that ohio now has a law that if your caught street racing you'll loose your car. Period.

Same with Ontario. If you get caught street racing, they take your car and crush it into a cube. I've heard that they have even made the guilty party push the button to crush their own car. (not sure if that part is true though)

[SoloSK71]

Originally Posted by Supermans

Who is the we?? Do you mean the Government?? Where the responsibility really lies is with the parents of these teens. A high performance driving school is not something everybody should have lessons in and even at a young age is very dangerous in and of itself since most kids wouldn't be able to handle that type of knowledge as well. Look at Hulk Hogans son.. He had plenty of lessons and had multiple sports cars... we all know how that ended up.. Your argument would be good if all those same people had drinking and driving classes as well at the same time, and other stupid things kids seem to get themselves into on a daily basis when they have high end sports cars and want to impress their friends..

The current driving exams are a joke. They have nothing to do with how you drive, what you drive or where you drive. A monkey could memorise the requirements and pass. I would have absolutely no problem supporting a graduated scale of licensing that was dependent on the type of vehicle you drive and courses passed and age where all of the above was paid for by the individual not the parents or the government or anyone except the driver of that vehicle.

- SK

[greenrail]

Street racing, is and always will be a hot button for me. Yeah, I have acted like an idiot at times at the stop light, but never ever, went the route of Street Racing.

Real racing, needs to be done at the track. In the Chicago area the past several years we have had dozens of kids and innocent bystanders killed because of this stuff.

It is so sad.

I personally don't care what the age, it is a personal responsibility. We can't and never will elminate it completely. But dog gone it, we can certainly discourage it.

Yeah, I know.... Grandpa, go sit in your Buick!

Sorry but this Grandpa doesn't drive a Buick!

[Supermans]

Originally Posted by SoloSK71

The current driving exams are a joke. They have nothing to do with how you drive, what you drive or where you drive. A monkey could memorise the requirements and pass. I would have absolutely no problem supporting a graduated scale of licensing that was dependent on the type of vehicle you drive and courses passed and age where all of the above was paid for by the individual not the parents or the government or anyone except the driver of that vehicle.

- SK

A graduated scale of licensing sounds interesting.. So if I buy a Prius vs a Corvette, I get two different driving school instructors at two different locations...hmm.. I get pretty annoyed already having to wait five hours at the DMV just to get my license renewed.. I just don't see how more mundane testing being done by Government workers is going to do anything about this at all.. What they can do is force people to watch a four hour video of crashes and teens and more crashes so they know the consequences, However even that wouldn't really do very much as kids still get these video's in school's drivers ed classes..

[UncleBenny]

I don't think sending kids to a performance driving school would fix this, if anything I could see kids thinking "well I went to driving school, I can do this with my car" and put themselves in even more dangerous situations. Bottom line, the majority of kids should not be driving cars with that much power, they just aren't responsible enough to respect it, and they don't think enough about the outcome of their actions. Hell, I'm 25 and I'd probably do some pretty stupid things if I was driving a Corvette.

[Tim Adams]

Originally Posted by PsyDoc

It's not only commonsense that can be lacking, but the adolescent brain is not developed fully enough to contemplate the possible outcomes of "risky behavior." That part of the brain that regulates impulse and emotions does not fully develop until the person is in their early to mid 20s. They simply do not have the capability to fully control themselves. Research also shows that when other peers are around, young adults are significantly more likely to engage in risky behavior (e.g., showing off). They simply do not have the "neurological brakes" of adults.

I am not trying to say that teens are not responsible for their behavior (e.g., it's not my fault, my brain is still a baby). What happened was a horrible accident, but calling it an "accident" only means that the outcome was not intentional; someone is still responsible for bringing about that outcome. Perhaps teens need more oversight by their parents and perhaps parents should be educated about what kids and teens are capable of from a cognitive standpoint so they can then make better overall decisions about their kids.

What a load of BS. If they are properly trained in high performance driving, they can handle anything, at 16 even. Look at Joey Logano, he just turned 19? Tommie Johnson Jr. was drag racing in Iowa, (on the track), before he was 16. Graham Rahal is barely over 20. You do not need to get into your mid 20's. One of the top, top, drivers in F1 is Sebastian Vettel, he is only 21. F1 cars are hands down the most difficult to drive cars on the planet.

The real problem is drivers ed. Every kid should be required to attend a high performance driving school before getting a license. But that costs a ton of money, so who is going to pay for it????

[UncleBenny]

Originally Posted by Tim Adams

What a load of BS. If they are properly trained in high performance driving, they can handle anything, at 16 even. Look at Joey Logano, he just turned 19? Tommie Johnson Jr. was drag racing in Iowa, (on the track), before he was 16. Graham Rahal is barely over 20. You do not need to get into your mid 20's. One of the top, top, drivers in F1 is Sebastian Vettel, he is only 21. F1 cars are hands down the most difficult to drive cars on the planet.

The real problem is drivers ed. Every kid should be required to attend a high performance driving school before getting a license. But that costs a ton of money, so who is going to pay for it????

You're really going to compare professional race car drivers to teenagers driving on the streets? Sure kids can handle driving the car at that age, but they can make bad decisions which can turn out tragically on public streets. Those guys race on closed race courses, not out on the freeway where you don't know what other drivers are doing or where they're going to be.

Are you saying let's just train everyone to drive a race car and let them loose on the freeway in Corvettes? I don't think that would turn out very well.

[kanys]

Originally Posted by greenrail

Street racing, is and always will be a hot button for me. Yeah, I have acted like an idiot at times at the stop light, but never ever, went the route of Street Racing.

Real racing, needs to be done at the track. In the Chicago area the past several years we have had dozens of kids and innocent bystanders killed because of this stuff.

It is so sad.

I personally don't care what the age, it is a personal responsibility. We can't and never will elminate it completely. But dog gone it, we can certainly discourage it.

Yeah, I know.... Grandpa, go sit in your Buick!

Sorry but this Grandpa doesn't drive a Buick!

I feel terrible for the friends and family of those who died in this and most other street racing deaths and must now suffer for years due to their losses, but I feel more sorry for the cars than for those who were in it.

[Brokinarrow]

Originally Posted by Camaro509

Kansas just raised their standard driving license age from 16 to 17 this year.
I think that better driving education along with responsible parenting would go much farther in keeping our young drivers alive than just making the age 17 (although it may help marginally).

I lay 100% blame on the individual drivers and the parents for this, not societies rules or regulations, or lack thereof.

imho, raising the age one year will just give you 1 year older inexperienced drivers. If they start at 16, by the time they are 18 they 'should' be competent enough to be trusted on their own without restrictions (of course some ADULTS still need to attend driving school of some sort). While I do feel that parents should do more to teach their kids how to drive, the government needs to require some more stringent drive testing. And I think it would be a great idea to incorporate a bit of the 'emergency driving' classes into basic drivers ed. Some people still don't know which way to steer when the car starts to spin...

[badkarma]

No doubt they were racing or at least goofing off. You should see some of the things I've seen on 285.

The normal speed on the low end is around 80mph for light traffic. You will get run over if you don't keep up. The speed limit is 55

There used to be a group of motocycles that would boast times on completing a "lap" (It's a loop around Atlanta) I saw them one night about 3am and they were doing at least 150mph

But luckily (safety wise), most of the time it's backed up with traffic.

[greenrail]

And the age old debate rages on.

Basically, people, (what ever age) need to understand vehicle dynamics and Physics as it relates to the operation of a vehicle.

I don't give a rat's rear end what the age is. There are enough old turds like me who drive like idiots as much as there are young turks doing stupid stuff.

Learn what a car can do, learn how it reacts, learn how to manage it properly, and last but not least learn to drive responsibly and defensively.

Too many people expect everyone else to get out of their way, and that just doesn't happen.

Oh, and keep the racing on a track not the street !

I'll go change my depends now!

[Supermans]

Originally Posted by UncleBenny

I don't think sending kids to a performance driving school would fix this, if anything I could see kids thinking "well I went to driving school, I can do this with my car" and put themselves in even more dangerous situations. Bottom line, the majority of kids should not be driving cars with that much power, they just aren't responsible enough to respect it, and they don't think enough about the outcome of their actions. Hell, I'm 25 and I'd probably do some pretty stupid things if I was driving a Corvette.

Originally Posted by greenrail

I don't give a rat's rear end what the age is. There are enough old turds like me who drive like idiots as much as there are young turks doing stupid stuff.

Statistics will work against your argument though.. It is the young that have far more a problem than the old..