Tuesday, July 04, 2000
Teen-age drivers, watch out
Jacque Hartman was scared the first time she wrecked her mother's car. But the second time — when she ran off an icy road and hit a tree — that was terrifying.
Her ribs were bruised and her collarbone cracked. She sat on the ground and sobbed.
Jacque is 17. She's one of the lucky ones.
Five weeks ago, another teen-ager hit the same trees along East Bend Road in Burlington, Ky. Phil Battaglia died a week before high school graduation.
People, we have a crisis here. Funerals are replacing summer jobs as teen-age rites of passage.
New laws
Kentucky and Ohio have new laws to stop the carnage. In Ohio, drivers under 17 can't have more passengers than seat belts. But last month, two 13-year-olds from Delhi died in a Jeep Cherokee carrying 11.
In Kentucky, 16-year-olds must wait six months to get their licenses. Crashes have declined, but teens still cause 21 percent of accidents while accounting for 6 percent of drivers.
Jacque lives in Erlanger with her dad, Steve Hartman. He happens to be a state trooper who gives driving tests for a living. His own daughter scored 98 percent on hers (administered by someone else, of course).
Jacque went to driving school, where instructors took her over the test route four times. She also practiced with her mom. She still had two wrecks in a year.
Lack of attention
Teen-agers don't pay attention, Jacque says. The social scene breeds mayhem: Friends pile into cars, shout directions, talk on cell phones, fool with the radio. Drivers try to flick cigarettes out the window, only to squirm when they land inside.
“Guys think dark, winding roads are fun because they feel they've conquered something if they get through it,” Jacque says.
She gets mad when friends talk like that. She knows better.
Her first accident happened weeks after she got her license. She was pulling out of a restaurant to follow a friend, whose lights were off. Trying to get his attention, she rear-ended the car in front of her.
She paid the $250 deductible and didn't drive for two months.
“It was a real big wake-up,” she says.
Then came a cold night in January. Jacque's mother told her the roads were too dangerous, but she wanted to meet a new guy friend for lunch.
On a patch of ice, she lost control and swerved wildly, eventually slamming into some trees.
It hurt to breathe. She was so traumatized that she didn't notice the bitter cold.
Change in attitude
Today, Jacque drives with the concentration of Tiger Woods.
“I don't even really talk. I don't even change the radio. Someone will say, "Can you change the station?' and I'll say, "No, you climb up here and do it.'”
Just days ago, she was driving along I-75 with three friends when a semi-trailer and a car crashed while trying to change into the same lane. Jacque managed to stop inches from the truck.
Then she pulled over and cried. It was too much — reliving her own wrecks, thinking how close the highway brings us all to death.
In the back seat, her friends didn't even see what happened. They were too busy talking.
Thank goodness they weren't behind the wheel ... this time.
Karen Samples can be reached at (513) 578-5584 or ksamples@enquirer.com.
