Absolutely! Absolutely! I agree with you 100%. If we didn't hand out drivers licenses at the age of 16 like we hand out so much candy, we would have MUCH safer streets. Think of it, for the most part 16 years olds aren't very mature yet we give them a license to drive 4000 pounds of steel. Kinda irresponsible! And at this age they develop stupid habits while driving, like talking on cell phones, text messaging

eek:

), checking their makeup, etc. I didn't get my license until my twenties either and I've been accident free ever since. No stupid habits here. Well, maybe a finger or two out my sunroof!
Actually, in Saskatchewan, they get a learner's permit at 15. I was absolutely shocked when I found that out. I've heard it's 14 in Alberta!
In 1990, I testified as a witness to an accident where an 18-yr-old floored his gas pedal just to show off the work he had done on his engine to his passenger. He broad-sided the other car (a heavy older car) so hard, it slammed into a signal lightpost and flew several yards. A passenger in the back died from a broken neck and the one next to her was permanently brain-damaged due to broken ribs puncturing her lungs.
To my dismay, two of my daughters have also proven that they get licences too soon here. Even though my eldest didn't get her full licence until she was nearly 17, she had an accident with her learner's permit and me in the passenger seat because she
willingly did the exact opposite of what I told her to pulling out of a parking space! I was so miffed about the damage to my vehicle and the chaos that ensued (the owner of the other vehicle and her mother reduced my daughter to tears), that was the last time I took her driving—I couldn't handle the stress anymore.
Then someone gave us a car with a manual transmission, which I allowed her to drive on my insurance since I had one of my own (someone she knew from school taught her how to drive a stick—I was too rusty on it at the time). One night, she had two friends in the car and decided to pull a picture out of her purse to show them. She looked up and saw that she had drifted into the left lane. There was no traffic around her, so it wouldn't have been a problem to just stay in that lane. Instead, she panicked, flung the wheel to the right to get back into the lane she was in originally, lost control of the car, flew up over the curb and took out a lightpost, which landed on the hood of the car! I was amazed at the lack of injuries when I saw the car!
The car was totalled, the lightpost was totalled (I couldn't believe the bill for that thing—thank God the insurance paid it!), she smacked her head against her window and passed out, and the guy in the passenger seat took out the stick shift with his hip (I don't know if he was wearing a seat belt). Surprisingly, she wasn't charged with anything (like not paying due care and attention).
Then she had the audacity to get mad at me for not giving her the insurance payout on what she felt was
her car, the premiums on my pkg policy doubled for over 2 yrs, and after verbally agreeing to, she refused to pay me the extra amount because I wouldn't get her another car. I told her I was willing to get her a bike with the payout (she refused), but the next time she drove a car, it would be on her own dime. Her last class act was to fall asleep and rear-end someone after being DD for her drunk friends—at least
they got home safe.
At one time, I thought this was my brightest kid. She still talks on her cell when she's driving without her bluetooth on with my granddaughter and me in the car with her and I give her grief every time she does it.
The second eldest has impulsive-type ADD and my ex taught her how to drive on-schedule. I wanted her to be kept from getting a licence until she was 18 for her own safety. She's going to be paying for an accident in 2004 for many yrs to come (she claims the other driver was at fault, but she didn't know my ex pulled the insurance on the car he signed over to her the day before). She has a licence, but no vehicle, and if she stops making her minimal payments on the previous incident, they'll cancel it. She was also ticketed for speeding (90 kph in a 50 kph zone!) with my youngest in the car and no seat belt on. And I can't prove it was while actually driving, but she sent me a text msg once when she was on the highway with my grandson in the back!
Now I feel that my youngest is the smartest—at 19, she still refuses to drive. She's been through driver's ed and practiced, but after seeing me get rear-ended too many times and the mess her sisters have been in, she wants nothing to do with it. She just takes the transportation system and gets rides with friends and co-workers when the buses aren't running.