The summer of 2006 will always be a haunting memory because of the series of tragic deaths of teens on our roads. There is no recovery from such losses but there is always the hope that we can move to prevent such events in the future. The one, best way to do so is to remind ourselves and our youth about how precious life is and how it can be lost in an instant. We can also do everything possible to equip them with the driving skills and wisdom to go along with their enthusiasm and feelings of invincibility.

Thinking back on high school, and this is still true of today’s teens, summer is a time where the brain seems to go on vacation or at least drop down a notch. In the mid-60s summer meant the Beach Boys, Jan & Dean, etc., singing about the beach, the surf, the fast cars, the girls, the ‘fun-fun-fun until her daddy took the tbird away’. Growing up in east Oakland I didn’t seem to have much in common with those songs, although a few summers were, in fact, spent near Huntington Beach living with a friend’s family. But teens everywhere seemed to have that California dream.

Then the majority of cars teens drove were huge, slow-maneuvering boats on wheels or the other extreme, a tinny Volkswagen beetle which could hold five with no seatbelts. The Ford Mustang of 1965 was advertised as the “princess of the supermarket parking lot” (I recently found such an ad from that year).

Today’s cars are lighter and faster than anything I can remember. Every Mustang produced over the past 10 years is pretty much a ‘muscle’ car. And these models have plenty of competition from every auto maker. However, the roads are not much different and the novice drivers today are no more experienced; this simply means that driving today is a much riskier business.

Summer means more free time for youth, more opportunities to do things that are not structured around school, homework, extracurricular activities; there’s more daylight and better weather to be ‘out and about’. In all likelihood, family rules are a little more relaxed in the summer. For rural or semi-rural communities, this means more time on the road driving.

All in all, as the teen in all of us remembers, it is a time for ‘freedom’, fun and a little relaxation. However, the rules of the road don’t change and the attention and care in handling a huge, moving piece of metal, glass and fuel, can not be lessened.

Please take all of these thoughts and memories into consideration while you enjoy this summer.