teenage road deaths

**yungatart** · 30th July 2005, 19:03

Just saw on the news tonight that four teenagers lost their lives in a high speed crash in HB this am. As a parent of a teenager and someone who works at a High School I would hate to have to deal with losing anyone I cared about in this way. It is blatantly obvious that the licensing restriction system and the anti speed campaign does not work for our young people- who consider themselves 10 foot tall and bullet proof -all evidence to the contrary! Perhaps we need to increase the age at which our young people can get behind the wheel of these souped up machines, as in Europe or maybe we need to have a power to weight ratio restriction. I don't think it was so much of an issue back in the seventies as teenagers drove ancient sluggish old bangers as in Humber 80's, Ford defects etc - certainly not capable of the speeds that todays kids can attain in their Legacys, WRX's, Evo's etc funded by nearsighted parents in a lot of cases.
I find the whole thing really, really sad and wonder what can be done about it.

**myvice** · 30th July 2005, 19:12

Power to weight restrictions would be the best idea.
They should re-do the bike ones when they’re at it!
I think driver Ed in high school, like in the States is a bloody good idea aswell!
Fat chance of my little one (now 13) getting a lowered and loudnd crap mobile for his first car!
Moot point, as he wants a bike anyway...

**yungatart** · 30th July 2005, 19:19

Thing is tho as regards Driver Ed in High School- if they pay as much attention to that as they do to other stuff ( eg Maths) it would be a total waste of time unless they were being taught to do wheelies,burnouts etc. We have sex ed at school- still have a shockingly high teenage pregnancy rate and STI's -ditto for drug and alcohol education.
Any more ideas?

**crashe** · 30th July 2005, 19:20

NZ Police CommCens Alert 23:00 29-07-2005 Eastern

Location of incident: WINDSOR AVENUE - HASTINGS

Incident Type: FATAL CRASH

AT ABOVE DATES AND TIME A CAR WITH 6 MALES WAS TRAVELLING AT SPEED ALONG WINDSOR AVENUE, HASTINGS. THIS IS A 50 KM/H SPEED LIMIT ROAD. THE CAR HAS GONE OUT OF CONTROL, HIT A LIGHT POLE AND THEN A LARGE TREE. THE IMPACT HAS CAUSED SEVERE DAMAGE TO THE CAR AND 4 OF THE OCCUPANTS DIED AT THE SCENE. THE OTHER 2 HAD SEVERE INJURIES. POLICE BELIEVE THAT SPEED WAS A CONTRIBUTING CAUSE TO THE CRASH. A FULL INVESTIGATION IS BEING CARRIED OUT TODAY TO HELP ESTBLISH EXACT CAUSE OF THE CRASH. DECEASED PERSONS ARE: DYLON SCOTT BRITTIN 16 YEARS. MICHAEL NEIL JEFFERIES 16 YEARS, CHE ORBELL 17 YEARS, AND ALEX SCALES 14YEARS. ALL ARE LOCAL HASTINGS RESIDENTS. POLICE WOULD LIKE TO HEAR FROM PEOPLE WHO WERE WITH THE VEHICLE DURING THE FRIDAY NIGHT PRIOR TO THE CRASH.
S/SGT R SMITH HASTINGS POLICE
Issued by: Sergeant Caroline Marner

**myvice** · 30th July 2005, 19:35

Originally Posted by yungatart

Thing is tho as regards Driver Ed in High School- if they pay as much attention to that as they do to other stuff ( eg Maths) it would be a total waste of time unless they were being taught to do wheelies,burnouts etc. We have sex ed at school- still have a shockingly high teenage pregnancy rate and STI's -ditto for drug and alcohol education.
Any more ideas?

Beats me then. Raise the age to 17? 6-12 months on a bike first? Actual driving test? (not the poor substitute we have now) How about a defensive driving course that ISNT done on paper in a classroom?

**Motu** · 30th July 2005, 19:39

6 young guys in one car speeding in a 50kph area - so what sort of car are you going to limit them to that will stop them doing that? Stop them driving Skylines and WRXs and stuff.....but they seem to be able to kill themselves in shitty old Civics easily enough.I don't know what we can do - but it's not restrictions,it's education.....you work in a school....you are in the right place,I'm not.

**Trakxntrials** · 30th July 2005, 20:02

What about reducing their CC rating that they are allowed to drive. I mean that is what I had to go through to ride a bike - restrict the CC rating and go through a skills handling course - they say that bikers are bad - but guess what ... there are more people dying behind the wheel of a car. And why is a 16 year old driving with friends in the car??? What is the drivers licence required age now??? I also heard on the news tonight that the section of road where the car crashed there is a dip in the road and it is well know for "boy racers" to become AIRBOURNE! I am just worried that it is going to be one of my boys in a smashed up car one day! Something needs to be done - that's for sure.

**yungatart** · 30th July 2005, 20:09

Originally Posted by Motu

you work in a school....you are in the right place,I'm not.

I work in a school, but am not a teacher. I don't have the answers to this, just a whole lot of questions. I think that driver ed is probably the right way to go , but how do you educate the attitude out of them? ( it is the attitude that leads them to take risks that ultimately kill them and their mates). What is different about girls - they don't kill themselves nearly as much as the boys do. Where are the parents, while these kids are hooning around city streets? Why don't the cops send out a patrol car when you call to tell them that it is the fifth time in 15 minutes that the same person has wheelied up and down your street at high speed at 2.00am. How the F... can they afford the petrol to drive like that?
I wish I had answers, but I don't. I have been talking to 14y/o son tho about risky behaviour, peer pressure etc so hopefully we never have to go through what those other families are having to.

**merv** · 30th July 2005, 20:25

How much of it is piss and drugs too compared to the 70's?

As for restricting cc and other things, in a 50k zone and hitting a pole and a tree it probably would have been the same result if they were driving an old Lazer or something like that.

Remember too that Yer Maun Joey Dunlop died after coming off his 125 and hitting a tree so it didn't help that he wasn't on his 1000. The laws of physics just catch up with the human body when you are going much over walking pace and you hit an immovable object.

6 of them in the car so no chance of seat belts for everyone and it sounds like two got spat through the windscreen.

It is a difficult problem because we can talk about education, but how do you get them to respect that and apply what they learn. Respect seems to be totally missing from the youth of today - respect for anyone else or their own lives as well. I'm buggered if I know.

**TonyB** · 30th July 2005, 20:33

I guess all that can be done is restrict the type of car they can drive, with a power to weight limit or something as has been suggested. Nothing to stop them from taking a car that is legal and then modding it though.

When a major smash is reported on the news, I reckon the first thing that goes through a young guy's head is "That guy fucked up. Obviously couldn't handle his car- won't happen to me, I'm a good driver. I know what I'm doing"

That attitude will be the biggest problem to overcome, and I don't know what the hell you'd do to fix it.

**yungatart** · 30th July 2005, 20:46

Originally Posted by TonyB

and I don't know what the hell you'd do to fix it.

Frontal lobotomies? Or removal of testosterone manufacturing systems?

**James Deuce** · 30th July 2005, 22:27

Originally Posted by yungatart

Frontal lobotomies? Or removal of testosterone manufacturing systems?

No more human race if you do that. Parthenogenesis isn't quite perfect yet.

The answer is quite simple.

Bring back world spanning wars a generation apart. Kills of the rash ones, and teaches the survivors to respect life and empathise with other people.

MD · 30th July 2005, 22:46

Notice how any of these younguns can drive sensible and avoid trees most of the time when driving alone. But pack the car full of mates- the very people who they don't want dead, and when they should feel a hightened sense of responsibility to protect their passengers they act the opposite way and show total disregard for their best friends lives???? Some sort of reverse psychology kicks in. Even when a teenager I felt the responsibility the moment someone else got into a car I was about to drive. Maybe it was a spin-off of being a pillion sometimes and realising how you were putting your life totally into someone else's hands and at times it scared the shit out of you. So at their mercy.
The Hawkes Bay & East Coast has had a terrible run of these multiple deaths.

**yungatart** · 30th July 2005, 23:18

perhaps then, the answer lies in banning driving with passengers, for a much longer period than at present, and putting more police on the road to deal with the lawbreakers.

**James Deuce** · 30th July 2005, 23:22

Originally Posted by yungatart

perhaps then, the answer lies in banning driving with passengers, for a much longer period than at present, and putting more police on the road to deal with the lawbreakers.

It matters not one whit what rules we put in place. It will always happen. Young men are fundamentally flawed into thinking that they are immortal. If it isn't cars it will be, and also currently is, something else dangerous killing them needlessly. Every culture experiences the same difficulty and some harness it better than others. Tribal societies with initiation rite ceremonies and protocols typically experience less "young bloke stupidity" than "Western" Judeo-Christion society. We don't provide a great deal of leadership or training on what it means to be a Man, or a Woman for that matter. We leave a lot to chance and judgement. It surprises me that there are so many of us.