By Staff
Scot Beard
A story that caught my eye Monday was about Ford Motor Company offering a new feature to restrict teen drivers.
The feature, called MyKey, allows parents to program a microchip inside the key to restrict various parts of the automobile.
If you are afraid your child is auditioning to become a NASCAR driver you can program the maximum speed the car can reach – up to 80 mph.
If you are worried about your child going deaf because the stereo is cranked up to ear drum-busting level you can program the maximum volume of the radio.
Reading about the reactions of some teens to this news made me even happier.
One girl complained about limiting speed because she might need to "accelerate to avoid a collision."
If she is driving 80 mph and is about to have a collision, she needs to slow down instead of speeding up.
Then it hit me – I am getting old.
I thought back to that time in my life and realized I would have hated to have those restrictions put on my driving.
I am not sure if it was teen rebellion or stupidity but I wanted to have the option to race my friends down the street or blast my radio as loud as I could.
I never did those things mostly because I never had a desire to, but I enjoyed having that option available to me.
I will admit I did have two accidents – but no traffic tickets – when I was a teen.
I totaled two cars, but fortunately nobody was injured other than a few bruises.
Both of those accidents occurred before Christmas break of my senior year of high school.
While I was not speeding during either one of my accidents, I was not paying as much attention to the road as I should have.
It occurred to me the best way to limit teen accidents is to raise the driving age – the two accidents in high school are the only ones I have had.
This will allow teens to gain more maturity before they are put behind the wheel.
Teens will still do stupid things, but not as many at age 18 as they do at age 16.
There is no telling how many lives could be saved or how much damage could be avoided by pushing back the driving age one or two years.
I hated people who said stuff like that when I was learning to drive.
Now I have become one of them.
Yep, I am getting old.