Don't let the little shits borrow your car in the first place. If they want to endanger themselves & others, make them buy their own car instead.

If they've had to save up for their own car they might treat it with a bit more respect.

already been banned under EU Human Rights for use over here?

"The little box just HAPPENED to be gravely damaged by a non-specific accident that only affected that part of the car and caused no other damage, and I'm sure it does look like someone cut the wires and cracked the main board, but that's entirely natural damage I assure you."

Hopefully. God I feel for kids these days, I was nervous enough when I first started driving on my own many a moon ago. I'd have been a wreck knowing my parents were monitoring my every move.

Vehicle impounded for dangerous driving and speeding offences under the age of 21.

Catch them the right way, but punish them properly.

how difficult it would be to link it to a tesla coil mounted in the seat. Just to keep em awake y'understand.

Paris cos I'm sure she knows all about tesla coils, well probably just the coils bit.

Efros

Surely that's the role of a 'responsible parent'.

If you can't trust your kid with your car (or any car) without the use of this then you've probably not excelled as a parent then.

If the parents reckon they are so good at driving then the whole family should have the devices fitted. Let's see dad explain his drive back from the pub.

A Deputy in one of the southern states had this sort of device hooked up to his sons car when his son was nicked for speeding. He checked the records and took the fine to court. They won as the logs which are not perfect did state for the boy to have hit the speed that he was supposedly clocked at he would have had to have been using a high performance sports car, not a station-wagon(estate).

Shouldn't be too hard to take the thing to Santa Pod on RWYB day, Roll 1 d6 + CHR for persuade check and hook it into the cig lighter of someone's 1100bhp dyno queen and see what the parents make of their little snowflakes Nova 1.2 merit reportedly running a <10 second quarter mile...

Can't you still start driving cars on the road at 17? I had my license then. A pointless piece of kit, Let them buy a an old banger for 50 quid and if they crash it they can buy another one.

By the time you are 18, you are trusted to get married, start a business, go bankrupt and get a divorce because the missus doensn't want to live with someone who can't keep a business running. But you aren't trusted to be able to drive.

If your parents want to keep tabs on you at that age, to that degree, then your best option is to tell them to give you the £300/$500ish, put it towards a deposit on a room/studio flat and move the fuck out, sharpish.

What next? Wrist moniters so that your parents know how many times a day you are making Baby Jesus cry?

[although I suppose it would be a good reason to get a woman, eh?]

Steven R

Why treat them diffrently than someone over 21?

Also, there are already restrictions for anyone who has held a licence for less than two years.

I can see the finger my 16-yr old sprog-ette is holding up now!

Tiwi is not looking to parents like they say they are, the real angle will be insurance cos. which will require them if they think they can make the sheeple go along with it.

"Its actually proven that the safest drivers on the road are the ones who travel faster than 85% of everyone, with the very fastest drivers (the top 10%) becoming rather more dangerous."

Got a citation for that? And I mean from a real, peer-reviewed journal: quotes from nob-ends like Clarkson don't count ;-) Or is it just yet more crap spewed by another member of the "*I'm* a safe driver, it's *other* road users that are the problem" brigade?

(full disclosure: I have also been known to drive *significantly* faster than the legal speed limit in some circumstances. But I don't kid myself that it's any safer...)

Surely a wrist mounted accelerometer could be used for monitoring other bad habits of teenage boys?

Paris for obvious reasons...

You know, I suspected someone would take issue with my assertion, and I agree that Clarkson quotes don't count, so here you are;

http://www.sha.state.md.us/safety/oots/trafficsignalsandlaws/speedlimits2.asp

http://www.tfhrc.gov/safety/speed/speed.htm

*from site campaigning for higher speed limits* http://www.safespeed.org.uk/speedlimits.html

*please note my previous comments apply mainly to motorways (and similar fast dual-carriageways) and are not applicable to urban streets*

...where our kiddies can start driving on their own on their 16th birthday (if they pass their road test on that date -- my son did). You can get an instruction permit at 15 (similar to a provisional license) -- the neat thing about it in California is if you get one for a bike then there's no capacity limitations (my daughter started at 15 on an old 500 MotoGuzzi but then appropriated my SV650)(that was years ago, she's got something a bit quicker now).

The kids have restrictions on their license which are gradually removed over time. They can easily get their license suspended (one way is a call to the DMV from their parents -- no questions asked). Parents are expected to play an active role in teaching their kids how to drive...and not just how to get through the road test.

You don't like to teach young people to drive in the UK. I think the way things are going its practically impossible to get a bike license there now -- something dumb about crash stops being at 50Km/hr which is 31mph so technically speeding on urban streets. Enjoy your cameras...

He made an interesting point in an article a number of years ago, broadly to the effect that road safety would be improved if seat belts were banned outright. Furthermore, the airbags should be removed as well and a substantial razor sharp steel spike should be installed on the steering wheel.

The safer you feel, the more risks you take. It's a well known principle but it does cut both ways.

As no kiddy can afford to go hooning around due to the cost of fuel.

Expect press releases shortly on how these high fuel prices are really a goood thing, as they cut down on dangerous driving and public disorder offences...

Jesus, its a visit from the oldest road safety fallacy in the world.

Making cars/roads incredibly dangerous to make people drive slower DOESN'T F*CKING WORK.

It's the same as trying to sort out your finances by earning less, because then 'you'll have to spend less'. It's utter nonsense.

The VAST majority of accidents are just that, accidents, NOT people driving round going "hey, I've got airbags, I'll drive at 130mph into this wall".

Putting spikes onto steering wheels or even removing the current safety features will only kill many hundreds of thousands of people involved in minor accidents. We have airbags, seatbelts etc because they DO work. The accident rate (and injury/death rate) in all developed countries has been dropping significantly over the last 50 years, both in absolute terms and even more so per vehicle mile, incredible considering the increasing density of traffic and the vastly increased speeds both achievable by modern vehicles, and the fact that drivers today spend more time driving, and driving faster than ever before.

When the M1 first opened (without any speed limit BTW) the 'average' family car would struggle to achieve 70mph. To do 100mph you would need a 'fast car'. Today the average hatchback can happily do 120mph all day, and LOTS of people do (over) 100mph every single day. Road accidents have still been dropping dramatically.

This is because (generally) we have had sensible policies of making our cars and roads SAFER (including where that enables higher speeds); country lanes have been replaced with motorways, third lanes have been removed, hazards have been signed, airbags fitted etc.

DO NOT try to f*ck up this good trend up by assuming that every accident is caused by some evil driver behaving recklessly. It's not any more true of road accidents than it is of workplace accidents, home accidents or anything else. By your logic, machine guards n factories should be replaced with lethal electric fences, because then workers will be REALLY careful about not touching the machine! It's absolute nonsense.

If you want a good read, get hold of "Road Accidents - Prevent Or Punish" by JJ Leeming.

...anyone would bite at the 'steel spike' post!

RIP irony ;)

Being young myself (lucky me) I agree with Mr Drew Wyatt.

Parents can fit one of these to my car all they like - I can't afford to drive the thing anymore anyway!

Then add the £2000 insurance for my little 1.6 engine. =(

Isn't that just like goldy and bronzy, only made out of iron?

I'm going to introduce my kids to other kids whose parents installed monitors like this in their cars.

That way I'll look better as a parent because I don't treat them like unconvicted criminals waiting to happen.

I'd love to see what happened if they managed to pull off someone's earlier suggestion of putting these on the parents' cars... I bet you'd find at least as many 'offences' or more than in those of newly-qualified drivers.

.....(What do you think you're doing, Dave?)

if little Johnny or Joan is caught speeding, they should be forced to drive a vehicle with the top speed and aceleration of a milk float (a milk float would be perfect) for two years, that'd stop them.

@Michael think you are confusing K.I.T.T. with HAL

the ideal solution would be to have K.I.T.T. onboard that could take over if they were speeding.

C'mon Bill, you've got plenty of time on your hands now, errr maybe that isn't such a good idea as we dont want a BSOD at 70 m.p.h. :)