Subject: <VV> Re: teen driver's accident records

[Arjay Morgan]

All of the postings about teenage drivers and first
cars seems to deal with, uh, present day teenagers.

Looking down from the lofty height of my mature years,
however, I realize that I too was a teenager in the
1950s

My first car was a 1937 Dodge 4-door with something
like 14 windows and suicide doors. I bought it for
$45, but my father wouldn't let me drive it until I
bought the insurance for it at $90. That wretched car
saw me through the rest of high school with nary a
dent. There were a sucession of other cars that came
and went, all without traffic mishaps.

It wasn't until I'd turned 21 and discovered the joys
of spiritus frumenti that my driving took a turn for
the worse. I didn't get in trouble every time I drove,
but every time i did get in trouble, alcohol was
somehow involved. By then I wasn't a teenager, but was
probably a much more deadly force 'pon the roads. 

Perhaps you could call it arrested development and
certainly you could call it developmently
arrested--many times. Never killed anyone or injured
anyone but myself, but my driving never really came
into the Acceptable Zone until I had well and truly
sobered up.

The Corvair content here is a tale about my most
spectacular accident. Coming home from a Christmas
wedding reception I turned off Route 309 in
Trucksville, PA a bit abruptly about 3 a.m. The car
became airborne across Toby's Creek for about 50
yards, then stopping abruptly as it hit the side of a
bridge which spanned the creek at an odd angle. The
car, a late model convert, fell straight down into the
creek bed, landing on its four wheels. My head was a
bloody mess from hitting the top rail of the
windshield, but I crawled out and made it to my
aparement where my head promptly glued itself to my
pillow. That morning three policemen came calling;
inquiring about that car in the creek. They hauled me
and my pillow to the local hospital emergency room and
left me to fend for my self, carless. 

Believe it or not, I was cited for littering a
Commonwealth waterway, not a violation of the MV code.
Car was totaled by the dealer who owned it and he gave
me a much safer, Corvette, to drive.

That was the last robust accident I had even though it
was years before i really sobered up.

Alll of these stories are anecdotal anddon' amount to
a hill of beans, statistically, but In my case I
became a whole lot more liberal when my two boys
decided they needed to drive -- I took he heroic way
and laid the whole burdern on theiir mother.

Arjay Morgan
64  Monza convert\
in Zephyrhillls, FL


		
__________________________________ 
Do you Yahoo!? 
All your favorites on one personal page  Try My Yahoo!
http://my.yahoo.com