Chicago Personal Injury Law Blog

The Chicago Tribune carried an article today about a large number of suburban school districts that have received waivers which allow them to limit the amount of behind-the-wheel training time they receive in their driver's education classes. Instead of driving the streets with a driver's ed teacher, students are getting their behind the wheel training by using simulators. With the waivers in place, some students may receive as little as an hour and 40 minutes of driving time behind the wheel with a driving instructor before they can apply to receive their driver's licenses. Some of the people from the districts who were interviewed for the article pointed out that the districts save significant money by using the simulators.

Permitting teenagers to apply for licenses after such a limited period of training is a recipe for disaster. In many of the districts which received the waivers, there are many roads with higher speed limits (40 mph or higher). Car crashes at that speed often result in serious injuries or death. It will only be a matter of time before there is a serious accident involving a teen driver who did not get enough on-the-road training time during drivers ed.

Only then will people start to wonder if the cost savings were worth it. The answer in advance: absolutely not.

Labels: Car crashes