The Arizona Daily Star, Tucson, Road Runner column

Sept. 29--My dad taught me to drive when I was 15. We'd head to a nearby housing development that was under construction, with no buildings but perfectly paved avenues, and he'd try not to grind his teeth when I ground the gears in our standard-transmission station wagon.

He had me back around cul-de-sacs (yes, I backed up in circles) and tried to teach me how to parallel park.

My last test before being allowed to hit the road solo was changing a tire.

Years later when we lived in a more rural area, I came upon two stranded girls at around 11 p.m. They were far from home, having driven to a fair in Sierra Vista from Douglas without permission. They had a flat tire and were panicked, having no idea what to do.

Luckily, I knew the drill.

Many kids don't have that kind of training. And it's more serious than just not knowing how to change a tire. Car accidents are the No. 1 cause of death among teens, and fewer are taking drivers education classes, according to the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety.

Those of or near driving age may well consider taking a drivers education class, since solid statistics (oh, how Road Runner loves numbers) show that students who don't take drivers ed have more accidents and are convicted of more traffic violations than kids who do take drivers ed.

Now, about those numbers, provided by AAA.

Arizona is one of 20 states that don't require drivers education.

Vehicle crashes are, and have long been, the No. 1 cause of death for teens.

Drivers education is associated with a lower incidence of crashes and convictions, cutting the rate of crashes by 4.3 percent and convictions by nearly 40 percent.

"State funding and requirements for these programs have declined over recent decades, leaving uneducated teen drivers vulnerable on Arizona roads," Linda Gorman, communications and public affairs director for AAA Arizona, said in a news release. "This research confirms what conventional wisdom tells us -- driver education makes a difference."

Although many school districts no longer offer drivers ed, AAA Arizona offers several programs for adults and their soon-to-be drivers:

--Keys 2 Drive, a website to help parents.

--Permit Prep Challenge, a free workshop for parents and teens that offers education and resources to teens preparing to take their written permit test.

--TeenSmart, a computer-based teen driver tutorial that can help teens become safer drivers and could provide an insurance discount.

--Teaching Your Teens to Drive, a DVD and workbook combination that can help you teach your teenager to drive on your own.

--DriversZed, a computer-based program that helps teens recognize and avoid driving hazards. The program puts teens into 100 live-action situations -- the equivalent of several years of actual driving, according to AAA.

Find out more at www.az.aaa.com/news online.

Down the road

If you're planning a weekday trip to Mount Lemmon, be aware that work will be done on General Hitchcock Highway (aka Mount Lemmon Highway) starting today.

Workers will begin a construction project at Milepost 18.2 that will include redoing 330 feet of pavement and installing earth monitoring devices that detect ground movement. The monitors will be installed beneath the pavement at a retaining wall near Milepost 18.2.

Construction will occur between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m., when travel will be reduced to one lane with flaggers directing traffic.

The project is expected to be completed by mid-November.

Send your Road Q questions by email to roadrunner@tucson.com or to 4850 S. Park Ave., Tucson, AZ 85714. Please include first and last names.

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