ARMY_101 said:
And I agree with them being a distraction. It however seems unfair to force parents to limit the number of children they carry at one time. As a parent, is it always feasible to only bring one child and leave the other (or however many others) behind? Could you always find someone to watch the other child while the other is out with you?
Because that seems to be discrimination by taking something into account that has nothing to do with someone's driving. We don't take licences away from people who have been convicted of theft, why should we base a teenager's licence on their poor sleeping around choices?
I don't think you are following me here. This is not about your (or anyone's) perception of "fairness". It is about safety. Is a 20-year-old parent's freedom to take 2 or 3 children with them on a trip to the grocery store more important than the safety of said children?
People have lost a lot of freedoms over the years in the name of safety. Our government now insists on bike helmets, seatbelts, booster seats under age 9, no BAC over 0.8, etc., etc. Isn't saving lives more important than individual freedoms? I certainly think so, and I wouldn't want to go back in time to when things were different. People will say "we didn't have such-and-such law when I was a kid and we all turned out fine". No, "we" did not. People died. People got injured. That is why the laws were created and enforced.
As a parent, it disturbs me that some folks are more concerned about themselves and what they might lose out on by not having the 'right' to have a drink before driving or not having the 'right' to have a carload of friends in their vehicle when
my child is one of the millions that are travelling the same roads with those drivers.
My child is being put at risk every day. That is what I think about when I hear these protests against new safety regulations. Why is your freedom to cart your friends around more important than the lives of the innocent people you may harm or kill? Can you not suck it up for a couple of years and put some effort into becoming a responsible driver rather than worrying about 'me, me, me'?
Let us not forget, after all, that driving is a privilege, not a right. Sometimes, "we" forget that, dont' we?