North Cedar junior has warning for student drivers

CLARENCE - Student driving is very popular among many teenagers all over Iowa.

At North Cedar High School, there are more than 50 students who have licenses, more than 18 with school permits, eight with regular permits and six with a moped permit.

With more than 82 students who have some sort of driving permit at North Cedar and many other schools with teens driving, how safe actually are the roads?

Everyone who has a license or school permit has taken Driver's Education, but some young drivers text while driving even after seeing those horrible videos in the class. Only a few have been in accidents, but that doesn't mean it won't happen.

Nine students at North Cedar already have gotten tickets and nine students have been in accidents. Not all of the accidents were with a teenager driving, but a few were. Just a few weeks ago, a North Cedar student had an incident in the parking lot of our school where a student was backing out and another was speeding through and hit the car.

I asked the student who was backing out his thoughts on why the accident happened and he said

'She wasn't paying attention and was on her phone,” said the student who was hit while backing out. 'It could have been prevented, but she was speeding and didn't give me enough time to stop backing out.”

Some accidents occur while drivers are paying attention, but use bad judgment. Another experienced student from North Cedar got into an accident while with friends because she tried to turn left on a yellow arrow, thinking she would beat the red light. In this case she did not, getting hit by another driver who did not look before entering the intersection.

'It is very important that you do not rush and pay attention while driving, almost harming my friends and others really made me realize how serious that is,” the North Cedar student said.

Recently it snowed, which means the roads were slick and all drivers need to drive with extra caution. One day, a student must have been driving too fast or not paying enough attention and hit a second car that had a student driver. This just shows students need to pay more attention to the road and drive more carefully. The accident also could have been a result of inexperience of driving in snow. Students who are just now starting to drive this year haven't been exposed to these type of road conditions.

In Driver Education, depending on when a student takes the class, the student may not be driving in snow or even rain, which could be a problem. Driving in perfect conditions while in Driver Education can be good for the first few drives, but could lead to trouble with adverse conditions exist.

Another issue with a teens driving is texting. At North Cedar, 19 students admitted to texting while driving. That has potential to be really bad. There are others who do it, as well, but do not admit it. Just taking your eyes off the road to check a text may seem OK, but is very dangerous. A lot can happen in three seconds - a distracted driver could drive into the oncoming lane and cause serious injuries or even death.