[Grady Clay]

BigD9146gt is correct.
There is virtually no instruction of driving skills. In most states “Driver’s Ed” is not required to get a license. Too many school districts have now dropped it. It’s “too expensive.” Well, EXCUSE ME. The expense is the carnage on the highway and we all pay for it in many different ways. Of course there is the insurance premium we all pay. Just in our local community there is the mother of small children, the PhD candidate, the teens, the guy who just works to support his family. What are these losses “worth”?

What if we, as the sports-car/racing community, lobby for safer roads through DE? What are the costs and what are the benefits? We in PCA, SCCA, POC, Vintage, and more seem to see the light in requiring driver’s education and meaningful penalties for indiscretions. Why can’t this be applied universally?

Yes, as bigD9146gt says, attention is everything. Soon after I bought my first new 911 (’68), I quit listening to the radio while I drive. Yes, I listen to tapes and now CDs while out on the highway (towing.) Never in town.

I’m working to almost never drive at night. My eyesight doesn’t work as well as when I drove the 2AM to 5AM shift at the Daytona 24-hour. I’m only in my 60s and I can tell the difference.

I disagree with bigD. I think driving record (no accidents, no tickets) is a good indication. Those are actual results, we all have good intentions.

No, there will probably never be any way to be safe on the street while there is no instruction. My “Modest Proposal” (ne Jonathon Swift) is that we school and test every driver every year. No pass, no drive. It can be paid for with driving fees. How would that go over in your state legislature?
I understand that we have an influential state legislator here in Colorado who blocks some drunk driving laws because he likes to “have a few beers on his way home from hunting” and sees nothing wrong with that. The only hope there is that Darwin will prevail. But who else will he take out?

Best,
Grady

In memory of Ballard Peabody and too many others.