Questions Raised About Effectiveness Of Driver’s Ed

This blog has previously underscored the risks posed by inexperienced teen drivers who sometimes have false bravado; they can pose road accident danger to themselves and other motorists and passengers.  With this in mind, the default presumption is that auto safety classes for new drivers seem like they would cut down on the number of traffic accidents. According to IndyStar.com, however, some state officials have concluded that driver’s ed paradoxically may be a waste of time:

Indiana lawmakers say the state’s driver education program isn’t working, citing a fractured system administered by three separate agencies and statistics that put the program’s usefulness in doubt.

Public affairs director Sarah Meyer of the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles  told a group of state lawmakers last week that a study of current drivers under 18 showed those who took driver’s education had nearly four times the crashes that those who didn’t take the classes had.

A consolidation of the three-decades-0ld program in one agency with a uniform curriculum may be in the works–assuming Indiana elected officials can be convinced that driver’s ed in general is still worthwhile in the first place. Under current Indiana law, teens who take driver’s ed can get their licenses at age 16-1/2 while those don’t must wait until they are age 16 and nine months. It could be that the three-month window allows for a head-start on the statistical possibility of getting into a highway accident.

For drivers of all ages, please see our previous blog entries that provide some safe driving tips, including the most recent ones suggested by Allstate. As always, the Indiana personal injury lawyers at Young and Young strongly recommend that you should drive defensively and with a high degree of alertness at all times.