Young drivers need a way to be identified in vehicles

One of the items left at a roadside memorial where four people died in a motor vehicle accident was a football for Freehold High School senior Michael Dragonetti, who was the captain of the Colonials' football team during the 2006 season.

After the horrific and tragic loss of three Freehold High School students and a 68-year-old great-grandmother, I wrestled for days with the "what ifs." I have a 16-year-old in Freehold Township High School, and frankly I am scared to death about her getting out on our roads and even simply getting into a car with a young inexperienced driver and the bravado that sometimes is connected with this "right of passage."

I sent an e-mail to my friend, Lt. Robert Brightman of the Freehold Town-ship police. The following is a copy of that e-mail. [I told him] I have been thinking about the provisional license issue and the ("now") idea of having traffic stops when a patrolman sees a car with a young driver and/or more than one other young person in the vehicle. I also realize the issues regarding the actual practicalities and logistics that are attached to "unprovoked," time-consuming traffic stops and the litigious repercussions on the issue of profiling.

However, would it not be appropriate for a 17-year-old to be lawfully obligated to affix a par-ticular solid colored sticker to both license plates of every vehicle in the household after the young person actually passes the test? In fact, I would expand that to drivers with a permit only. Red for permits, orange for provisional, green for still under 21.

That way when a moving patrol car or a patrolman that is directing traffic sees young people in a vehicle with a particular color sticker, the officer has a more defined "right" to question the condition. Is the vehicle being operated lawfully under the provisional license law or other such connected laws and if found to be in violation of same could lose the privilege of driving. When a kid turns 17 or 18 and picks up the new license, a different color sticker is then affixed over the last.

This is a simple, inexpensive, non-intrusive way for a police officer on patrol (or even and importantly the public at large) to better understand how experienced the driver really is and for authorities to gauge if they are operating the vehicle in a lawful manner.

I believe that even if we could not get the state into the loop right away we should start a grassroots program for our kids (your kids) in the Freehold Regional High School District.

Lt. Brightman thought enough of this idea to forward it to other members of the police department while advising me there are other comparable systems in place in other states.

What I would love to see is a statewide interest with billboards defining the system along our highways, educating the public at large that there are thousands of young inexperienced drivers on the roads and that "kids need room to breathe" both inside and outside of the vehicle while they learn to proficiently handle these 3,000 pounds or more "weapons of mass destruction."

How many of us have come upon a vehicle on the road that wasn't moving as quickly or as expertly as we would have liked and criticized their actions only to find out in the next moment that the driver wasn't old enough to vote?

I now refer back to my thinking about the "what ifs."

What if that Cadillac leaving Freehold High School at 2 p.m. on Jan. 10 had an orange sticker on the front plate?

What if the trained traffic officer at the corner for school dismissal would have seen that sticker, counted the passengers and simply pulled the car over, thereby not allowing it to proceed to the spot where such a wasteful and horrible finality to four lives occurred?

What if that officer had the chance to be a hero without even knowing it?

I know, a lot of "what ifs." But I will leave you with just one more. What if I am right? It is too late for those boys, the grandma and that officer, but there are heroes yet to be and many lives to be saved.

Please contact your respective schools, your town, county, state officials, the Office of the Governor, and the state Motor Vehicle Commission. Get this to their attention.

Do not let this tragic event fade into our past without a change for the better for the future. Please. My kid gets her license this year, and I want people to know that she is a kid and that "kids need room to breathe."

Jeff Kneler

Freehold Township