no damage to the kid

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Chasper

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It didn't take long, seven months after my son started driving, his old truck has met its end, a rather ingnominous ending at that; but at least there were no injuries involved.

He pulled up to the edge of our hilltop driveway and drove the two front tires (part of a $500 set of new tires I should add) off the edge of the driveway. There is not a parking stop there, but nobody else has run off the edge in 12 years of living there.

In exactly the following order he turned off the key, turned off the lights, and started to put it in park as he took his foot off the break. The truck started to roll forward, but with the key turned off the breaks were very sluggish and he couldn't get it stopped rolling forward...remember it wasn't in park.

At that point he jumped out of the truck and watched it roll down the hill, clipping one tree before hitting the next head on. With the air bag deployed and the front end wrapped snugly around a tree the old truck met its end.

Put it in park before you turn off the key, is that so hard to remember? I'm going to let him suffer the indignity of riding the bus to school for a few weeks to help him remember to put it in park before turning off the key.

I'm still steaming but down deep relieved that he did jump out.
 
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Any wreck that they walk away from is a good one. My son stuffed the front of his first car into a wall. He also walked away so I know how you feel.

When you feel like getting mad at him just think back how many stupid things that YOU did that you also got away with [:D][:D][:D][:D][:D]
 
I personally think it is a GREAT idea to make him ride the bus. I certainly don't think that is being hard on him, that is just teaching him to be responsible for his own actions, something fairly rare in the country nowdays!
 
Yeah making him ride the bus is a good idea. He'll remember what he did wrong every day for awhile. I'm glad your son is OK!!!

When our son first started driving, we let him use the fairly new little S10 truck to go to school, (we live 14 miles from town). He backed out of our drive way and rammed into one of the company trucks the worker was driving. We got the company truck fixed but made Trevor drive the body damaged S10 for 2 years to school. Got it fixed right before we traded it in. We knew every time he got in that truck and saw the damage to the rear fender on the drivers side, he would watch as he backed up.
 
After suffering similar events w/ my sons I can sympathize. It is a somewhat expensive lesson but it is one I bet he doesn't make again.
Is there a bright side? Maybe he can help you make blanks out of the trees he hit.
 
Hey I am an old man of 56 and I turned off the ignition first today for some reason, (probably a brain fart). Luckily I was in my driveway and I caught it fast enough so that it did not roll.[:eek:)] Good job with the parenting and helping him to realize that he must be more attentive.

Mike
 
I feel bad, for you, your son and the truck, but he needs to pay off the debt. Does he work? What I find hard to believe is that he jumped out of the truck. There are many things he could have done, but I guess he is was just to inexperienced to deal with it. Glad he is alright though, that's the most important thing.
 
At least he jumped out before he let it slide down the hill with the lights and ignition off and his foot off the brake!

Sorry to hear about your/his troubles, but at least no-one was hurt! Definitely make him ride the bus for a while, and make sure he takes some responsibility for cleaning up the mess (getting the truck back up into the driveway, jacking it up to check for damage, etc)...by having to help fix his problem, he will take more ownership for it, and the lesson will sink in, hopefully!

Just don't get too mad at him - accidents do happen...could have been worse - he could have hurt someone else!
 
It sounds like many of you have been there with a new driver. I'm an old man with young kids and this is a new experience for me. I also tore up a few cars when I was learning, fortunately I survived.

I'm fond of my vehicles, I hate to part with one. This truck is a 1995 Ranger with 140,000 miles. I bought it new when this son was four years old. For 12 years I told him that it was going to be his when he could drive. I thought it might last a little longer than this. It is far beyond repair. It is amazing how much speed it picked up going about 40 yards downhill before hitting a pine tree pretty much square on.

So much for that, the tree will probably survive and it doesn't have any good pen wood in it anyway.
 
Glad he wasn't hurt. I've got you beat just a little. My daughter got her license on thursday and flipped and totaled the car on the following tuesday. She was ok just sore. O well cars can be replaced she can't.
 
Allen,
That was quick, they don't have a clue about what they don't yet understand do they?

The night before he took his driving test we went out to practice parallel parking, he hit the gas instead of the break and crashed into the trailer hitch of a truck he was parallel parking behind. I'm calling that one a pre-license accident.
 
Well I guess my dumb driving thing would be getting a ticket for "disregarding traffic control device" only after I had been driving for less than a week! I turned right at a left turn intersection like I had seen my mom and dad do thousands of times. Some cops are so mean....
 
Gerry,

I was a "model citizen" as a young man (and pigs fly)! Always had access to my mom's VW when I wanted to go anywhere.

When MY son got old enough to drive, I decided he should drive HIS car. So, HE got a job and put up a grand for a car. Over the next couple years he got a better car. BUT, he treated the cars pretty well, knowing that a "total" would mean another grand out of HIS pocket. Accident repairs would also come from HIS pocket. (I replaced the tranny at $1300, but that's "wear and tear", not "carelessness")

Driving is a great opportunity to learn that actions have consequences and you PAY for YOUR mistakes.

This was a lesson I learned LATER in life.[;)][;)][;)]
 
Tom,
I could send him to school on a horse, but our horses cost more than our cars. So far we haven't had any kids in the ER because of auto related incidents, but we have made a few horse related trips to the ER.

Ed,
I agree with your thinking, he treats his iPod with more respect that he treated his truck because he paid for the iPod with his own money. The next vehicle is not going to be free. Before he started driving we had five vehicles for two drivers, now we have four vehicles for three drivers, so I'm not going to buy anything else, but I sure would like to have him making payment on an old mini-van or something he was embarassed to be seen in.

Maybe I'll let him drive his mother's Surburan for a while, that would be serious humiliation.
 
Very few teens make it to 21 without an accident. Sometimes it's just experience, sometimes it's just stupidity. I've done some awfully stupid things with a vehicle. The only reason I didn't get into more trouble was being raised in such a small town...no cops [:D][}:)]

Make him help pay for the replacement so he will learn from the mistake and appreciate what he has. Then, thank God he wasn't hurt and laugh at the rest. Take my word, one day they do grow up.
 
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