Rowhouse Logic - Breathtaking Inanity

This Washington Post article, on the dangers of teenagers driving sport utility vehicles, focuses almost exclusively on the rollover issue, but I think there is a much bigger problem on the horizon.

With the proliferation of Sport Utility Vehicles over the last decade, there are a huge number of used SUVs, which are about to be turned over to suburban teenagers for use as their very first car. As we all know, teenage drivers, especially males, are more aggressive and more reckless than older drivers. The combination of heavy trucks with big engines and equiped with high bumpers that impact at the windshield level of passenger cars with teenaged boys whose veins course with testosterone should disturb everybody.

I don’t drive much anymore, probably a good thing since I’m an awful driver and I don’t have a driver’s license, but I recall being 17 and driving around like an angry speed freak and having more than my fair share of minor accidents. Taking into account public welfare, I probably shouldn’t have been driving at all and the results may well have been deadly had I not been driving a small, slow Chevy. Obviously, not all 17-year-old boys are as reckless as I was, but I’d bet that a sizable minority is. I foresee many weepy 20/20 segments on this issue in the coming years.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 28th, 2004 at 11:11 am and is filed under Blather. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.