I can't imagine losing my son.

Yarin if you are ever in the area on a Wednesday or Friday night for $17 you drag all you want in my area at <a href="http://www.newenglanddragway.com/" target="_blank">New England Dragway</a> . Of course, after the snow melt. It doesn't matter how slow your car is, but there are rules if your car is too fast. But I won't have that problem in my NA

 

I can't believe the cars that parents are buying their kids. My high school parking lot is full of brand new cars, including a new RX300.

Although all street races are bad, the worst ones are by far the ones where an innocent person dies.

Whenever I see some reckless teenager drive, I say to myself that the driving age must be raised. However, I know that there is a minority of teens out there who repsect their cars and obey all of the laws. Although this minority shouldn't be punished for the recklessness of others, reform must be made. The best kind of reform will be to make the driving test harder or to put a limit on the cars that teens can drive.

 

They have just made the driving test in Georgia more difficult this year and I'm very glad they did that. The test is no longer conducted in the DMV lot, you now have to go out on the road and on Georgia 400. It should help keep new idiots off the streets. As for limiting the cars that teens can drive, that wouldn't work well in my opinion. Because I don't think it matters whether a kid is driving a civic or a M5 (3 M5's at my school BTW, and somebody recently had a new Z bought for their first car), there are still plenty of them that will think they're Schumacher and put themselves in danger by driving recklessly.

 

Its always the kids who have their cars handed to them that are unskilled drivers or ignore any rules. Perfect example, kid in brand new eclipse is in front of me, and behind like 3 cars on a long straight away, 35 mph, double yellow. He proceeds to pass all three cars, and then barely makes the turn at the 5 way, no lights, intersection up ahead. Its incredible.
Another example, a girl in my class gets a brand new mustang conv. for here 16th birthday. Come winter she is all over the place in that thing. She ended up on top of a stone wall one day, and she explained to me that when she started to spin, she pulled the e brake to help her stop!

Conor

 

I also think that all driving schools should include extreme condition training. Like learning how to recover from a wet-pavement spin, and other common hazards. One of my best friends recently spun his car on a rainy day and was very lucky to have no damage to the car or himself...
I'm thinking about bringing him to autocross school with me in a few weeks... <img border="0" alt="[burnout]" title="" src="graemlins/burnout.gif" />

 

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">Originally posted by TarHeel 944S:
<strong>I also think that all driving schools should include extreme condition training. Like learning how to recover from a wet-pavement spin, and other common hazards. One of my best friends recently spun his car on a rainy day and was very lucky to have no damage to the car or himself...
I'm thinking about bringing him to autocross school with me in a few weeks... <img border="0" alt="[burnout]" title="" src="graemlins/burnout.gif" /> </strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">An interesting idea... sort of like what I did. I got into my mom's accord, drove to a local buisness park, found the biggest parking lot known to man, and did absolutely stupid crap. WHat did I learn besides that its a quick way to go through tires? How to maintain car control. Yes, I understand that what I was doing was probibly not safe, but give me credit for doing it where no one is arround. There have been at least three times in which I have used the things I learned those nights; Autocrossing, icy roads, and how to control a car without ABS.

 

bader, I'm sorry for your loss. I hope it was painless for your son! Your insight is invaluble.

-Matt

 

No one should have to outlive their children.

 

alex, thats a great idea... i think the skills should be one of many things people are required to learn before they drive. before you fly an aircraft you're taught the physics of flight, the aircraft systems, and how to manipulate every aspect of the aircraft's actions. in my opinion, it should be no different for cars. far fewer idiots would be on the road, and those that did make it to the road would at least know what they're doing.

on the subject of the deceased, i feel for his family and friends, and i pray for all of them. such a senseless thing to happen, and although the definite reason hasn't been established one could only imagine that he must've been doing something he shouldnt have. i wish these people would learn before it takes 6 of their friends lives to figure out. and i totally agree... NO ONE should outlive their kids.

- Michael

 

I see kids in my school parking lot that are very bad drivers and I have taken most of my friends (in there car) to a empty parking lot and we set up cones and I teach them how to bring a car out of a spin (I pull E brake and then quicly release it on wet pavment around 30mph with nothing around to hit.) Then we do trial and error and teach them about the diffrent things to take into consideration when the car begins to slide. Most when they begin to spin turn into the way they are spinning (you be amazed) I teach them of how to countersteer. I have been stoped by the police one night and was fearing a ticket but the officer understood my conserns of drivers notbeing able to control there cars and he was actually surprised to see someone actually learning and not just "fooling around" He said it was ok for us to be there (parking lot in middle of nowere) and he wouldn't say anything about even seeing us. He then simply got into the cruiser and left.

 

I must be old. The parking lot at my HS was full of Corvettes, Trans Ams, Camaros, 280ZXs (yeah, '79-'82 and nobody wanted to be caught dead in a Mustang II) and ALOT of old 60's muscle cars, one guy wrecked (read; just short of totaled) his '70 GTO THREE times before his father took it away. It's sad how many of these old cars went to the crusher because the kids who had 'em, shouldn't have had 'em. It's a shame how many of those kids are gone, too. Back then I thought it was unfair that the driving age was 17 when kids in other states could drive at 16. Now, I keep thinking that 18 makes sense and that any state that lets a 16 year old drive, is a state that I don't want to drive in! Don't bother to flame me, yes, there are probably 15 year olds who would be great behind the wheel and there are 25 year olds who shouldn't be allowed to walk (myself included, ). While I'm ranting, can we do something about the 80 year olds?

I was going somewhere with this, but I feel better now so I'll get off my soapbox.

Happy Birthday Yarin!

Edit; as far as the father's comments go, he said he spoke to the witness. If you were the witness, would YOU give the grieving father the full story?

 

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">Originally posted by Dave:
<strong>Edit; as far as the father's comments go, he said he spoke to the witness. If you were the witness, would YOU give the grieving father the full story?</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">IF the kid was racing, or did something else really, really stupid, and you knew it, MAYBE. If sparing the father the truth would be merciful, YES, I might lie to the father about what I saw. Tell him a story he just might be able to live with. If you don't, a second life could be wasted.

It took me one to learn. When I was sixteen, drunk, and in the rain, I rolled a Barracuda into a cornfield. I had just met a girl and was on top of the world, until that slick curve. The old Mopar was a lot of armor, we walked away. Had there been a tree there, maybe we wouldn't have been so lucky. Had we been in today's lighter, smaller rockets, I'm sure I wouldn't have been so lucky.

 

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">Whenever I see some reckless teenager drive, I say to myself that the driving age must be raised. However, I know that there is a minority of teens out there who repsect their cars and obey all of the laws. Although this minority shouldn't be punished for the recklessness of others, reform must be made. The best kind of reform will be to make the driving test harder or to put a limit on the cars that teens can drive. </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">Though I'm only 17, I have to agree. I've been hit three times in the school parking lot this year, and none were my fault. Luckily, it was in my crap-box Lumina, but it still sucks. there's plenty of kids that run around in new(er) mustangs, trans-ams, firebirds, etc. that just drive like idiots. Many people in my school have 2+ tickets, and multiple accidents on their records.

The driving test definitly needs to be more strict. Having someone drive around the block is no test for driving skills. You're putting a 3000lbs+ weapon under their control based on that?

Younger kids also shouldn't be able to drive high performance cars unless they have some kind of training, ie Skip Barber or something. Everyone here knows 944 NA's are no speed demons, but there's still plenty there to get me into trouble. Young drivers don't need 300+HP with no training/ instruction on how to handle it.

 

Wow, Dan.

Micah

 

Please please no more this is depressing!! I come to this site to have fun. We are all mature here. We don't street race do we guys?! 944s owners are IMHO are elite porsche ppl, we buy the car to fix them not street race them.
Its so sad what has happened.