For many 16-year-olds, a driver’s license is a rite of passage.
Before the moment when the Mississippi Highway Patrol hands over a freshly laminated license, though, stand long and often stressful hours behind the wheel as teens struggle to master the art of driving. Along the way, rear bumpers, side mirrors and parents’ nerves can suffer in what’s often one of the more dreaded tasks of child-rearing.
For both the nervous young driver and the relative in the passenger’s seat, most agree that the key to a safe and successful learning experience on the roads is to stay relaxed, no matter how difficult.
“You’ve just got to stay calm with them and keep it light,” said Jeff Jones, a father and longtime coach at Pillow Academy, where he’s also dealt with plenty of student drivers in his more than 17 years as driver’s education teacher. “They’ve got to learn.”
Coach David McIntyre at Greenwood High School, who has taught would-be drivers there for seven years, echoed that advice. He said a panicked teen behind the wheel is just about the worst thing possible.
The key to overcoming those early jitters? Experience. McIntyre said he usually starts his students on a driving simulator, but for others, he recommended taking new drivers into an open space — such as a field or an empty parking lot — to get the feel of the pedals and steering wheel before heading onto the open road. After that, hours on the road, however uncomfortable, are key.
“You’ve got to let them drive,” McIntyre said. “You can’t let them sit on their permit. You’ve got to let them practice.”
Although many parents might ride along white-knuckled, for many teenagers, learning to drive can be an exhilarating and exciting experience.
Ellie Knight, 14, a freshman at Pillow Academy, took driver’s ed over the summer and describes herself as an “awful yet great driver” who has trouble with sharp turns but otherwise is confident on the road.
She said her parents seem tense and nervous about letting her drive. “They don’t want me to hit anything or anybody,” Ellie said. “I haven’t.”
Some of her trips behind the wheel this summer with her driving instructor took Ellie out on the roads around town and even onto Interstate 55.
“After I got out on the highway, it really wasn’t that scary,” Ellie said. “It was fun in a way. It was sort of a sense of freedom.”
Trooper Tony Dunn with the Mississippi Highway Patrol in Greenwood — the father of a 15-year-old son — said giving young drivers a bit more supervised experience behind the wheel should also help ease parents’ concerns when finally sending children out on the road alone.
“That’s what the permit’s for. Let them get behind the wheel and let them drive, let them experience the open road,” Dunn said. “When you actually let them go by themselves for that first time, you’ll still be really nervous ... but it’ll give you a little assurance.”
After a career patrolling the highways and working crash scenes, though, Dunn said he might be even a bit more concerned than the average parent about sending his own child out. Although accident rates have been declining nationally for the past two decades, car accidents remain the leading cause of death for teens in the United States.
“I’m a little more stressed out because I know what happens out there, knowing how people drive and seeing everything that happens each and every day on the road,” Dunn said. “Parents who aren’t law enforcement don’t know what we see every day.”
Still, Dunn said that better driver’s education programs, improving safety features on cars and better outreach programs to combat drunk driving and encourage seat-belt use have combined to make the roads safer for teens.
“I really think it’s made an impact in the way teens drive,” Dunn said. “Back in the ’90s, it seems like every weekend there was an accident involving a teenager.”
Robert Pannell, an insurance agent with State Farm in Greenwood, also said experience for young drivers is key. He said one of the big reasons that young drivers have higher accident (and insurance) rates isn’t so much their age but rather that they simply haven’t had the time or experience driving.
“A 16-year-old is going to have pretty good reflexes and reaction time, but they haven’t done it enough,” Pannell said.
Pannell, a father of four, said teaching a teen to drive might well result in a few dings or scratches on the bumper.
“They do bump a little bit here and there. If they don’t back into something or bump into something, that’s pretty good,” Pannell said. “A brand-new car for a 16-year-old, in my opinion, is not a great idea.”
Still, Pannell said avoiding distractions, from texting to cranking the music up too loud, can help drivers avoid wrecks and tickets and keep insurance rates down.
“I’m a firm believer if anybody — kid, old person, middle age — if they keep their eyes in front of them, on the road, not a whole lot of this stuff happens,” Pannell said. “If you watch the road, you can avoid a lot of stuff.”
• Contact Bryn Stole at 581-7235 or bstole@gwcommonwealth.com.
