World of Suck

I love how protecting someone's "right to be a retard" is now an acceptable litmus test. "So what if I'm illiterate? My child should be raised like me!" It's nice how Texas is so much more progressive in that respect than other states, the leading edge of stupidity. And the latest evidence to this is the law they passed that enabled young drivers to be trained by their parents instead of a certified driver-safety program. The results? That kids "taught" by their parents got into more accidents, and drove more poorly than kids who were properly trained. No surprise there.

"In April 1997 the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) implemented rules, based on legislation passed in 1995, that provided for parent or guardian-taught novice driver training that meets all of the driver training requirements necessary for licensing between age 16 and 18. As currently constituted, the parent-taught driver education program in Texas essentially grants to parents the same role, rights, privileges, and responsibilities as were formerly granted only to State-licensed and approved novice driver instructors and driver education programs."

They did this, ostensibly, for the "convenience" and "comfort" of the students. What wound up happening was that parents were sticking their kids (who can legally start driving at 14, in cases of "hardship") behind the wheel earlier and with less training and pushing them out onto the roads. Probably because it was more "convenient" for them. And while kids who were taught by their parents claimed they were as skilled as peers who took a certified class, it's pretty obvious that it wasn't true:

"Based on driver records, PT novice drivers were convicted of more traffic offenses than commercial or public school-trained drivers before implementation of the GDL program, especially in the first year of driving...However, during the period when requirements for adult supervision are reduced (provisional license), and after supervisory and other GDL restrictions are removed (full licensure), PT drivers again experience proportionally more total traffic convictions and more, and more serious, crashes than drivers trained under commercial/public school DE programs."

PT is parent trained.

GDL, is Graduated Drivers Licence. It separates drivers over and under sixteen, and restricts the hours and passengers of those under that limit. While GDL helped to a certain degree, it couldn't eliminate the fact that parent-taught kids got into more accidents.

Although the numbers point to the fact that parent training is a bad thing, more and more people in Texas are signing up for the program because it's easy. Lawmakers have tried to rescind it, but they can't because of its popularity.

Does this mean that any parent that decides to train their kid to drive is a shitty, selfish parent? Not 100% of the time, but probably more often than not. Most parents have a pretty hard time staying calm with their kids by the time they're teenagers anyway... Not to mention a lot of adults clearly are crappy drivers themselves. Expecting a parent to be calm while teaching their kid a defensive driving maneuver while they're headed for another car is pretty damn unlikely. The only thing that is predictable is the fact that in a choice between safety and convenience, Texans prefer to take risks over prevention... because it's their "right".