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Learning a critical life lesson -- safelyBy BILL STEVENS
© St. Petersburg Times, It was an honest reaction, and maybe we should have expected it. But it hurt just the same. When you give your daughter a car for her 17th birthday, you kind of expect her to get excited; maybe even jump up and down and squeal. But as she walked into the garage where the gold Ford Taurus sat all clean and waxed and sporting a big red bow, she didn't even try to mask her disappointment. This was dad's car, after all, and he was passing it down. Besides, she went to a high school where kids drove cool cars, all much sportier than the 4-door family sedan that was -- well -- practical. We didn't choose it for its sleek lines and chrome wheels, but rather because it had a terrific safety rating. Heavy doors, air bags and anti-lock brakes would give our little girl a better chance on the likes of U.S. 19, we figured. Last week, I heard how an Orlando police officer quietly expressed gratitude that the young man who had just slammed through a brick wall had been riding in that gold Ford Taurus. Something lighter, something less durable, likely would have meant death or serious injury. But the driver walked away with only a stiff neck. He is my daughter's friend, and because his own car was in the shop, he used the Taurus for what was supposed to be a five-minute errand. It chills you to the bone as a parent to get a call from your sobbing teenager that begins like this: "My car is totalled!" Since she moved to Orlando as a university freshman last summer, our single biggest fear has been that we might get such a call. She's a good driver, but maneuvering the highways is the most dangerous chore most of us do on any given day. It's the routine that lulls you into a false sense of security. You're buzzing down to the 7-11 a half-mile from home, singing along with the radio when a Buick blasts through a stop sign or a dog runs into your path. Sometimes it seems that the question is not whether any of us will have a wreck, it is when -- and whether it will be bad. When you're 100 miles away, you can't keep your children safe. So you prepare them the best you can for the danger, and sometimes that means you force them to drive a car that they otherwise might not choose. As we stood looking at the crumpled Taurus last Saturday at the junkyard in Orlando, my daughter feared an angry reaction. Only two weeks earlier, I had paid $700 for new tires, a brake job, a major tune-up and even new windshield wipers. It ran better and rode smoother than my own car, if only for a short while. But seeing the damage, all I really wanted to do was hold her. That same morning we had published a story about a 17-year-old girl who had been killed on Ridge Road while driving the car she had been presented upon graduation from high school. Her mother had just taken her to register for college, exactly as we had done a year earlier. Such tragedy provides perspective. You can replace a car. So now we have an insurance check that doesn't equal the true value of the vehicle, but it's a start. Meanwhile, classes will start soon and my daughter will be bumming rides and no doubt finding more to do on campus rather than downtown Orlando. This, her parents believe, is a good thing. Likewise with this welcome signal of maturity: my daughter actually thanked us for making her drive a relatively safe car. And as she searched the Internet for a replacement, she narrowed her choices based on the most important factor: the safety rating. Life goes on -- thankfully.
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