TEEN DRIVING
We all must do our part to protect young drivers
Sixteen is the age at which many teens eagerly anticipate their driver’s license. My son is nearly 15, and he eagerly awaits earning his license. However, 11 is also a number they should be thinking about. It is a deadly number for teens. Approximately 11 teens die each day in automobile crashes. Auto crashes take the lives of more than 4,000 teens, and injure approximately 300,000 annually.
If we want the future of teen driving to look different than its past, we must take a stand to help protect our teen drivers. A survey by the Allstate Foundation indicates there is much more that we can do to keep our teens safe behind the wheel.
Teens need to understand this issue and their role in it, to ensure their safety and that of their friends. Parents need to understand that their teens are not immune to fatal crashes. It is vitally important that they talk to their teens early and often about the responsibilities of driving (or riding in a car with a teen driver).
As a local insurance agent dedicated to the safety of my customers and my community, I strongly urge that we all do our part to save the lives of the children we love.
Rob Longyear, Marietta
PUBLIC SAFETY
Police should use dogs to stem crime on MARTA
The recent news about the attack on the Delta employees on a MARTA train left me disgusted.
My family and I lived in many countries over 25 years of military service. We rode in the subways, trains and buses of major cities all over Europe almost exclusively, and never felt threatened.
To allow thugs to terrorize passengers on their way to or from work (or even out on the town for the night) is ludicrous.
The solution to this problem is simple: police departments should assign patrolmen to ride the trains or buses randomly with K-9 partners. Even if the thugs aren’t afraid of the officers, the dogs would be enough to make anyone think twice before attacking anyone.
Lori Baenke, Cumming
ENVIRONMENT
It’s not always about the bottom line, folks
Surely, Lee Raudonis is joking (“Tweaking your lifestyle will help the planet, put money in pocket,” Opinion, April 21). Is there something in Republican DNA that allows them to honestly believe that everyone is able to buy a brand new hybrid, if they want to help the environment? “Let them eat cake!” comes to mind.
By addressing this issue in such a cavalier manner, he not only ignores the economic reality of our time, but he rudely slaps environmentalists for placing “far too much emphasis on the global benefits of being ‘green’.” Maybe if we did think of the global implications of our actions (rather than the “personal benefits” of those actions), we would be better partners in working to aid our environment. It’s not always about the bottom line.
Sara Reams, Fayetteville
