3 ms·

This is totally fair, and a solid observation. I think it's a little remiss to square blame on the shoulders of the young though. A lot of accidents are caused

• lutusp 13y ago
  > I think it's a little remiss to square blame on the shoulders of the young though. A lot of accidents are caused by poor reactions, tiredness and distraction. Fair enough, but don't forget inexperience, an important factor, one that disproportionately affects young drivers.
  • derleth 13y ago
    It's best to think of a mesa of driving skill: The slope on the left side is where experience is gained, the plateau is someone's prime driving decades (hopefully!), and the slope on the right side is when inevitable physical decay of the brain and everything else takes its toll. The trick is to make the ramp-up as uneventful as possible and to arrest the decline before it's serious. Sadly, adults who've driven for decades are commonly loathe to ever give it up, and for good reason in our car-centric society. Also, I think the whole concept of field drug testing is misguided because it's using a bad proxy when a direct test, in the form of field reaction time testing, wouldn't be any harder to accomplish. Reaction time testing doesn't test judgment skills, but neither does testing for BAC, necessarily, and focusing on BAC ignores fatigue, which is a known killer. (And we allow stupid people to drive anyway.)
• dagw 13y ago
  The difference is that he chose to be needlessly reckless. Had the accident happened while he was driving the speed limit, he wouldn't be facing murder charges