DRIVER EDUCATION VITAL ON ROAD TO GROWING UP

This session, the Missouri General Assembly will consider a bill to mandate driver education in Missouri's schools, and require anyone under 18 to take a driver education class before obtaining a license. It's an idea with merit.

Car crashes are the single leading cause of death for teenagers today. Driver education training can relay some hard facts to teenagers before they climb behind the wheel. In the hands of an ill-prepared youngster, a vehicle can become a lethal weapon.

Each year, about 50,000 Americans die in traffic accidents, almost as many deaths as were suffered by the U.S. military during the entire 12 years of the Vietnam war. Half of these fatal accidents involved either a driver or pedestrian impaired by alcohol.

About 7,244 of those killed in 1988 were teenagers - earning car crashes the dubious honor as the top cause of death for our young people. Drinking, speeding and inexperience figure in on many of these accidents. That's where driver training can help. Driver education provides practical information and techniques which can be put to good use each day by these young people. Without driver education, some young people may learn valuable driving lessons the hard way - through an accident.

Granted, the biggest stumbling block to instituting this plan may be money. Driver education requires an investment of instructors, equipment and fuel.

Only 184 out of 450 high schools in the state offer driver education. About 46 other schools offer a summer class. Mandating this course in every school district will add up to a considerable sum of money.

Funding could come from a surcharge on traffic violation court costs. A similar system is now successfully used to finance domestic abuse programs - through a surcharge on marriage licenses and divorce decrees.

Missouri would not be blazing new ground with this proposal. Several states require driver training to secure a license at age 16. Without the course, many states require teenagers to wait until age 18.

Requiring driver education would not eliminate all teenage traffic deaths. But it might make a dent in this number one killer of our young people.

As we build our occupations on educational foundations learned in high school, so we can pursue a lifetime of safe driving with skills taught by trained teachers. High school driver education training can steer our teenagers on the road to growing up safely.