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Many parents don’t give a second thought to the type of car their child may be driving while they’re in driver’s education class at their local high school; however, recent surveys show that parents should be concerned. When asked about what school districts deem most important when purchasing vehicles for student drivers, two items came up again and again: cost of the vehicle and fuel efficiency. Many schools did not even mention safety ratings in their list of concerns.
Parents that want to know about the cars their children drive during school hours can call their child’s high school and ask the administration. One parent in Chicago did just that, and found out that her son was driving a Chevrolet Aveo. The problem? The model received a dismal two out of five star safety rating, and received between “marginal” and simply “acceptable” ratings for several different safety categories.
Is your child driving a safe car? Chances are that they aren’t. Many schools, especially those in urban areas with more children and lower budgets, are opting for older cars. Although schools are shown, on average, to use vehicles that are five years old or newer, lower budget schools are often forced to go with models that are up twenty years old.
Even when a school decides to purchase recent model years, they often are most concerned about the cost of the vehicle. Naturally, those with a poor crash test rating and low safety ratings can be snagged at a discount, making them more appealing for school officials trying to stretch an already tight budget.
Side airbags, which have become more of a standard option than a luxury, are rarely present in older vehicles. Those schools that are using cars that are five, ten, or even twenty years old have opted to go with vehicles that aren’t equipped with side crash safety measures. With student drivers being inexperienced and having a higher chance of being involved in an accident when on the open road, parents generally want their children to be driving vehicles with higher safety ratings.
Some schools are grateful that the issue has been brought to their attention, and intend to start replacing their driver’s ed vehicles with safer models in the near future.
