Colorado had no teen driver restrictions, as Oklahoma apparently still is doing, up until around 25 years ago.
That all changed after a horrific accident that took the lives of all 4 teens who were out for a spin on a school lunch-break.
The car was owned by the youngest son of the family who were, and still are, our closest non-relative friends.
Mark was 17 or 18 and highly intelligent and bored with high school, so before his senior year he took the GED and passed, and started at the local community college that same Fall that would have been his senior year.
He had this sporty little red car that he had bought cheaply (its body and engine I think were both trashed out), and then used his savings from after-school & summer jobs to fix it up into near-pristine shape, with a lot of advice from a mechanic friend.
He would often leave the college at lunchtime to meet his girlfriend who was still in high school, plus some other close friends still in school, for a spin.
One of those friends was 2 years younger than him, and had been a close-by neighbor of his for many years. When this kid first got his learner's permit at around 15 yrs 9 mo (or was it 15 yrs 6 mo??), he often begged Mark to allow him to drive his sporty red car. But Mark didn't trust his driving ability yet, and always said No.
But that fateful day, the kid had just turned 16 and had obtained his license that morning before school. Again he begged Mark for permission to drive it. This time Mark relented, I guess because it was such a big day for his younger friend.
So the kid was driving, Mark and his girlfriend were in the back seat, and another boy was in the front passenger seat. They were heading south on a 2-lane road that crossed Highway 34 - a 4-lane road, and had to stop at a Stop sign before crossing.
In addition to the handicaps of being a new driver, of driving an unfamiliar vehicle for the first time, of being distracted by 3 other teens all talking next to and behind him, the newly-minted driver was on an unfamiliar road that had some ongoing construction project on it that resulted in large distracting signs, barriers off to the sides, lane detours and so on.
He never saw the stop sign at Hwy 34 and just drove right into the path of a large flatbed truck without slowing down at all. The truck driver remembers a sudden flash of red bearing down on him from the right, with no time to react.
All 4 teens died immediately or within a few hours. Mark's parents got to the hospital too late to hold his hand as he slipped off of this world. His girlfriend's Dad was the first parent to learn of the accident. He was a local policeman, and heard the radioed report of a crash involving a small red car, that filled him with a sense of foreboding, especially as it occurred over the school lunch hour. His sense wasn't wrong.
One result of this was a change in Colorado law regarding new teen drivers. In part it reads:
Teens with a permit:
Teens with a permit must be accompanied by a driving instructor, parent, legal guardian or a licensed adult 21 years of age or older (authorized by parent/guardian) in the front seat, buckled up.
Teens with a license: For the first six months, no passengers under 21, unless a parent or other licensed adult driver over 21 is in the vehicle.
For the next six months, one passenger under age 21.
There are other restrictions as well. Eg, no driving between midnight and 5am.
Besides being traumatic for the local high schoolers, the accident was big news all over the state. Some state office that teaches safety to students asked Mark's Dad if they could keep the wreck, to be hauled around the state on a flatbed to be used at state high schools as an eye-popping prop accompanying a road safety lesson. His answer, "I don't care if you keep the car; I just want back the young man who was in it".
The next year, in a different part of the state, I heard a 16-year old step-nephew of ours complaining about this new law that made things tough on teen drivers for no good reason at all. Boy, did he get an earful from me!
>> running behind and were trying to get back to school before the tardy bell so she was in a hurry
There but for the grace of God went I and some friends.. For some reason, that still scares me decades later.
CCMVRWC, my condolences.
I think those laws restricting young passengers with young drivers are an excellent idea.
Wow, what a story! I’m so sorry for the loss to your friends and community. God bless those bereaved parents!
That was before the leftist and lawyers got involved claiming the kids would be offended or too scared to watch them, so the ditched the programs. They were billed as, "Not to scare you, but to show you". And they worked.
Some kids who watched them were interviewed years later as adults, and most stated, "I never forgot those videos".