All right, let's learn to drive right now. We're going to do our, uh, we're seeing County
dry, uh, staying safe program right now with me from the program is, um, Tom Ditter from
the routine County Traffic Safety Commission each month. We do a different program to help
people with safety. We did buses. We do, you know, snow safety when you're driving.
And now we're going to talk about teenage drivers to the shiver up your spine. If you
got a teenager, Jeff Irving is here from the driver's ed program at Union Grove High
School. I think that's every parent's fear. Oh, no, they want to permit. I remember
I'll leave it to be everyone while he gets his permit. His mother is panicking. And then
he wants the keys when he passes. Well, you just got it. Won't you wait a few months?
Teenagers don't want to wait. I passed. I want the keys given to me now. You, you must
be frightened. The death driving with teenagers in a car. Well, that's what most people
will ask. They'll say, aren't you terrified? I could never do that. Well, you, you, you
do it long enough. And you learn that, you know, you have to stay calm. And the more you
do it, it's just like anything in life. You just, you get better at it. You know, so
the more I sit in the car with these kids and the more you learn what mistakes are going
to make before they make them and you get more comfortable that way. But I've been doing
it 28 years. So it takes a lot of all takes a lot to rattle me right now. Yeah. Have you
ever had a kid who just can't handle it? You know, there's going to be an accident somewhere
because they, they just can't handle the stress of drive or they can't figure out that
you've got to go slowly on the break. You know, jamming on. And when you get to a start,
you don't roll through a stop sign. You got to pay attention to the signs, pay attention
to the surroundings. I do get kids like that. But I never, I've never gotten to a point
where I've had to stop the lesson and just say we can't do it. We've had to pull over
I've had kids cry in the car. Really? Yeah, I have. I have. And you learn, and you learn
that first year that you can't yell at them because I never cried to you. I've never cried
in the car. Maybe after. But no, you learn, you know, these kids, they, you know, they'll,
they'll calm down in the car and then they'll, and then we start in a slow areas if we have to.
I'll start in a parking lot. I've had kids where I've only had to start with in a parking
line. Then we'll graduate to like a residential area and move from there. But I've never had a
kid where I've had to stop the lesson. So that's good. But I haven't had kids that have never driven
before. So I'm two and a half men. They let the little kids drive the car in the parking lot.
And he jams on the brakes and Charlie says in the back seat, notice how close that we are to the
dumpster now. We weren't as close before. We're close now. My dad did. I just remembered that.
He took me to the department store parking lot a few times. It's a great idea. I, I, I put out a
video of my last, because my class is online. My classroom portion is except for a couple days.
In my last video, I tell the parents on the video because they have to watch it with a kid and
then email me to tell me that they watched it. And I tell them I say start in an empty parking lot.
Start in a cemetery. Some place where you go real slow and you don't have to, you know, you don't
have to worry about high speeds or much traffic and then graduate from there because a lot of
parents, they're like, they, they want me to take them out first. But I want to teach them a lot
more than that. So that's why I always tell them empty parking lots are one of the best places to
start because, you know, chance of a hit and something are pretty slim. That dumpster's getting
closer. Yes, it is. It was a close two minutes. Yeah, it's not on wheels either. Yeah, I just
remembered my father. I never got a little out there. It took me to the major department store
parking lot on a Sunday. And it was, it was closed on Sundays. And he said, now I want you to
park here. Yeah. See the lines park in the lines. I forgot all about that. Just reminded me of that.
I don't know about cemetery. So I know I would want to knock over a tombstone.
Well, I would either, but the speeds at a cemetery are mostly 10 miles an hour and it's winding.
They're usually winding. So it's a very slow speed. I can never do your job in a million years. I
just couldn't, I couldn't handle it for so many times. But you have double breaks, right? You
guys have a break on my side. Yes. And like I mentioned before, I do have, I wish I had a
gas pedal at times. And we, I went to the driver's head conference at Wisconsin Dells. I go there
every spring. And they had one of the speakers had had to show a hand said, who has a break?
And everybody raised their hand and he said, who has a gas pedal? One person. I don't know how
they got it, but they have a gas pedal on their side. So I don't know how that is. What do you get
cars that are made like that? So it's not the car itself. We buy the brake and we install it into
our car. And then it's just a cable that runs over and attaches to the top of their brake. And then
when I push on mine, it pulls on their brakes. I'd be hitting it all the time. Yeah. I use it a lot,
yes. And I do it now when my wife's driving the fake brake, you know, you're always the fake
thing with your foot. That's what all my kids will tell me. They say, yeah, my mom's over there
sitting the brake. Yeah. Well, down at the end of the show, he'll tell you where you can get one
of those brakes. If you're going to start on your car. Oh, I'm fine now. Make it. When I taught
my daughter to drive, I was scared to death because she had an attitude when she was like, don't
tell me what to do. Yeah. Yes, I'm going to tell you what to do. And she got upset because this car,
I think it was a nun driving a car, cut her off and yelled at her through the window. And we were
driving down a side street and browned here. And, you know, I didn't give anybody the finger. It
was a nun. I didn't do anything like that. But, you know, she's, you know, it's about 10 miles
an hour or 12 miles an hour of the street. You know, he's surprised at us. We have stickers
all over the car that drive us in. And the amount of people that will cut us off or honk at us,
it's surprising to me because you think, I mean, it's very obvious that we're learning to drive.
It's a driver's ed student. And people will still cut us off and honk at us, even though they know
the kids learning to drive and that they're not very good yet. So what are the driving ages in
Wisconsin? When can you get your permanent loanage permit? At the age of 15, you can get your
temporary. No, temporary license. It used to be 15 and a half. Now it's 15. So you can hold
your temps for up to a year. That was one of the best decisions the state ever made because
in the six months, because it used to be 15 and a half. And some of these kids in six months just
don't practice enough in a year. I'm finding that more kids, I think, are ready at the age of 16
if they're getting their temps at 15. I have twin boys that are 17. I made sure on their 15th birthday,
they got their temps and they practice for an entire year. Oh, terrific. Yeah. So I think that's
been one of the best things. So you get your license at 16. 16. Oh, what was it in?
17. It was 17. But most people 18. If you didn't take drivers at it was 18. Oh, it is still,
if you don't take drivers at it's still 18 in Wisconsin. Yeah. But you don't have to. Yeah,
you don't have to take any drivers at the age of 18. They take help through their insurance.
I never saw my insurance going down. I mean, I'm up there in age now. It's just told state
farm. You know, I did take drivers at 70 years ago. And you know what, the older people,
yeah. I think there should be a driving update every once in a while. You know,
my mother was driving until she was like in their late 80s. She was a good driver. The problem
was she had my father who was to touch everything and he had Alzheimer's toward the end touching
everything in the car. And I said, Mom, you know, I'm paying attention to word about him. Yeah.
I can't say give me your license. She said, you're right. Here it is. I said, I will drive you
wherever you want to go. Yeah. You call me when I get it and everywhere you don't have to drive.
You can't drive with him anymore. That is a debate that comes up at our conferences every year.
And it's such a touch. It's, you know, it's a sensitive topic because can you imagine driving
60 years of your life and then you go in and have to take a road test and fail. And now
all that freedom that you've had for 60 years is gone. So it is a, it's a tough subject. You're
absolutely right. There are some. My grandmother was the same way. Rest her soul. She, uh,
her last few years of her life, she was not a good driver. She was right on the road.
She couldn't drive with my father in the car. And I couldn't take that chance. And she had a
beautiful catalog. It was a plus the parking spot she had at the place she lived at a cement pillar.
And she must have hit that pillar about 20 times. All side of the car was scratched up.
It's the Racine County Traffic Safety Commission staying safe today. Tom Knitter is here from the
Racine County County Traffic Safety Commission. And we also have a special guest. Jeff Urban is
here. He's a driving instructor runs the driver's head department at Union Girl White School,
my wife's alma mater. There you go. But yeah, you're in school. You didn't teach her though.
Yeah, I, you know, one thing about my driver's head teacher, I never forgot. And I think about
this every time I come to a yellow light, he said, what does the yellow light mean?
Everybody said slow down. He goes, no, clear the intersection. Get out because the light's
going to turn reds over you there. Get through it. If you're not there, you can stop. But just
make sure the intersection is clear. And every time I do, I'm going to clear the intersection.
Yeah, I forget his name. He was such a great guy. I do. I really love that guy. He was good.
Do they still show that the horror films?
I should. It's, you know, because you can run your program.
You know, everybody runs a program a little different. And some of the videos I show, I do show
some, especially the seatbelt ones that I want the kids to see just so they understand how important
the seatbelt is because I was telling if I rank everything in order of importance that I'll
teach you from one to a hundred. Number one is why I'm a seatbelt by far. Well, they just
to run from the Ohio State Patrol, Ohio State Police, 16 millimeter movies we had. And they
used to run these. And these were, this is what happens. They had body parts laying all over the
place. And these poor kids. I get a lot of kids that'll tell me after they see certain videos,
that they don't want to drive now. And I'm telling that's not the purpose of the video.
I don't want to drive. They were scary movies. Yeah. Some kids say, oh, look at that. That's
look at that guy's hand. It's like. There's not as many quite like that anymore. Yeah, these
are the Ohio State Patrol and they were. They were. You can see them on YouTube. They still have
the old Highway State Patrol. I'm sure you can find the videos out there. Okay, let's get to some
of these five driving points here. Now, this is hard to read on the screen because it's written
in white on a bright color. No cell phones. There's something I never had to deal with.
Do you tell them to shut the phones off when they get in the car? Yes. That is the biggest growing
epidemic in our country. They can't really put a number on it. You know, there's thousands of
people dying in our country every year because of cell phone use. But they can't really put a number
on it because if you are on your cell phone and you're driving down a road and you go off the road
hit a tree and crash and die and you're the only one involved. That's not going to be a statistic.
They're not going to even worry about cell phones because you're the only person involved. But
so they can't really put a number on it. But I tell these kids two things have to happen when they
start when they get in the car the first time to drive. You put your seatbelt on and you silence
your phone and I always tell them I think most kids plan on not texting and driving. I show them
enough videos. They understand how dangerous it is. But I always tell them this is what I tell them.
It's a snowball effect. I think when you are driving down the road and these kids and there's
nobody in the car to tell you not to be on your phone and you hear a notification. Maybe you
ignore it. But then you get another one and another one. I said at some point what's going to
happen you're going to be on a road where nobody's at. You're going to check that phone and I always
ask them what's going to happen. And they'll say crash and I say probably not. You're probably just
going to check it real quick and it's probably not going to crash. And I always tell them that's a
worse thing that could happen because then you think you can do it again. Then you think you can
do it again. Next thing you know you're part of the problem and not part of the solution and you're
you're texting and driving all the time and I said it's just a matter of time then before you're
going to cause an accident. So the odds are eventually going to get you up with you. Absolutely.
We're talking about team driving driver safety. When I'm driving my wife my phone goes up. Don't
look at it. And she's right. It takes a second because somebody that's going to cut ahead of you
cut in. Yep. It could be an animal in the road. It could be a person in the road. Yep.
After that second you look at your cell phone. Like when I get a call from Tom Nitter. I never
answer that phone call while I'm driving. I don't blame you. I don't blame you. I say he can
wait. It's not important. Yeah. It's always important with Tom calls. But yes cell phone usage.
I never had a deal with that. I didn't either. So they have to shut it off and drive.
Yeah. Yeah. Because we're actually I make yeah. Because I put them behind the driver so I can
see them too. So if they check there. If they're on there. If they ever see them on their phone
while they're in the driver's head car behind me. You know obviously I holler at them. Do you
have other kids in the car? You saw the driver. Yes. There's a one because they need six hours of
driving. Yeah. Six hours of observation. So I do two two hour lessons. One you know with two
kids. One student drives and the other ones behind watching and observing. So they have to observe
six hours also. So yeah. We had the two people in the back seat. One person driving. Okay.
And the review mirror you can see them having a funny fool around the back seat and just distracting
me. Yeah. But I just remember those days. How can I remember that? But it was you know pretty
important to me. I want to get my and I told you I had my high school didn't give it for the summer.
Yeah. They give it during the regular year but not for the summer. So I had a walk through the other
high school. And it took about maybe an hour to walk there. Maybe a little more walk the other
high school. Yeah. And when it rained I got them bro. I walked through the rain. But that's how
important it was. And then I got my driver's license and every kid in the high school was my new
best friend. Yep. Now I was telling Tom I said you surprised. I am surprised at how many kids
because of social media that actually how many kids I get in class that aren't that excited
about getting their license because that was the only freedom we had. We didn't have our social
media. We didn't have cell phones. So they are only free to must to get your license and drive.
I get some kids in class that'll be honest with me and they'll tell me that the only reason
they're in drivers that is because their parents making them because they just really don't have
that desire to get out and ghost places, which is surprising to me. Now there are still those kids
like us that just can't wait so they can get out of the house and drive somewhere and go somewhere
with their friends. But it is the Racine County Traffic Safety Commission hour today. Tom Nitter
is here from the Racine County Traffic Safety Commission. And we're talking about teen driving
safety. Jeff Urban is here from the driver's head program at Union Grove High School.
I think teenagers have to realize driving is not a right. It's a privilege. And that privilege
can be taken away from you anytime. I mean, they'll just snatch it from you and you'll never drive
again. Absolutely. So be careful driving. We were just talking during the break here, a 20-year-old
driver. Had a major accident on 16th Street here. It's about a couple weeks ago. I don't think
she had a license. I'm not sure, but I pretty sure she's the one and I shouldn't say it pretty
sure. It's allegedly took the life of another driver the week before. So I mean, you know,
kind of a license to drive. Okay, so we talked about 15. You can get your permit, right?
I think it's 15. It's the child. Now, just, you know, I believe in Michigan. It's 14 and a half.
Now, I know if you're in the farm country, you can get a license a little earlier because you
got to help out on the farm with tractors and everything else. My brother's friend bought a car
when he was 16 and drove it in his hands back yard back and for they'd sit in this convertible.
Go back and forth in her yard, which is okay. It's private property.
It's real, yeah. And they would get in the car. They'd go from one side of the yard to the other
back and forth and this convertible. The radio go and I guess they had a good time doing it.
I tell my students that you can legally drive as long as it's not on the public roadway.
You can do that without a license. What does it have room they can practice at home?
I don't even have an expert on motor vehicles, but I see these
electric bicycles all over the road and they're driving in traffic and they don't have a license
on license plate. Is that legal to do that? I believe it is legal, yes. And it can be dangerous.
That's another controversial topic that we talked about at our conferences where,
you know, people argue that, you know, a lot of bicyclists don't follow all the rules.
It's a lesser part, too. But even the electric bikes, yeah, they're all even a regular bikes
supposed to. They're supposed to still stop at a stop sign. But, you know, I'll admit I'd,
you know, if I'm riding a bike, I don't always stop at a stop sign either. But that is one of the
things that comes up at our conferences because it is an issue. Here's my biggest pet peeve.
A school bus is there. They have the red stop sign out and people drive right. Yes.
And just so everybody listening knows unless it's a divided road, it doesn't matter how many lanes
there are. There could be eight lanes of traffic. If that bus is all the way seven lanes over
away from you and it's not divided, that's illegal. If it's a bullet mark with that island in the
middle, then you don't know if it's divided. You can continue to drive on the other side.
I can't tell you any people I see. Stop sign time. When I retire, I'm getting a beach chair.
I'm going to sit at the corner of victory and whatever that street is over here. And just
videotape all the drivers passing the stop sign. They just roll. Some of them roll through it,
you know, hit the brakes, but they were some don't even make that effort. Yeah. Because it's
early in the morning. If he had one of the chances of another driver coming, you'll only find out
once that driver was there and you might not even realize it. 153 dollar fine if you're rolling
through a stop sign. How much is it? 153. That's what Kaap told one of my students because I had a
student not stopping completely. And it was thought he was stopping completely. And I kept saying,
you're not stopping completely. He said, yeah, I am. And I said, no, you're close, but not quite.
And sure enough, we pulled over to do a white turn. Kaap pulled up alongside of us. He had us
rolled a window down. He said, Hey, I know you're in structures with you, but you didn't stop at
that stop sign back there. So the kid never said a word to the rest of the lesson because he knew
how to get the $3 from. I don't know. That's a lot of pain. Big ledger slater with a tear around.
$315. I don't know. Not 150. No, 150. And that could have changed. That might be higher now. That
was a couple of years ago, so. Okay, third on our list here. It looks like a second on a list
as no extra passengers. So with once. Okay, so with their temporary license, they can drive with
a parent guardian or somebody 21 or older with written permission and that is in charge of them.
And then they can have as many immediate family members as they want in the car. Once they get
their probationary license for nine months, the first nine months, they can only have one
not immediate family member in the car. So they can have one friend in the car. So they're
limited on the amount of passengers. And that's because of the, you know, the distractions that
they're going to cause. So they could still have a couple siblings in the car and a parent and a
friend, but that first nine months, they have their probationary license. They can only have one
friend. And is there a restriction like overnight hours or midnight to five a.m. They can't drive
by themselves. They could still drive with a parent and there are exceptions if they're driving
from home to school, school to home, home to work or work to home. Those are the exceptions as far as
driving from midnight to five a.m. for the first nine months. I remember the first song I ever
heard on the radio when I got my driver's license. I said to my mother, can I take the car out?
She goes, what do you have to take the car? I said, I'm going to the maze department store.
Why can't you walk? Because I got a driver's license. She did not want me driving that car.
And I said, can I please have the keys? I don't see why you can't walk because it's 45 minutes to walk
and I can drive there in five minutes. And so she gave me the keys. I turned on the radio.
The first song I heard, Maggie Maeve by Rod Stewart.
You still remember that? I always forget you never forget your first girl.
Never forget you never forget your first radio station. At least it wasn't Hot Rod Lincoln.
It was Maggie Maeve by Rod Stewart, my first song. And I got in the car and I was terrified
because I was alone. It was nobody in the car. And I lived to tell the tale. I went to the
department store, got what I wanted, came home, parked the car. When my daughter first got her license
and she said, okay, I'm going to the Butler skate rink. This is a Butler right north of Milwaukee.
And she said, I'm going to Butler skate land. Can I have the keys? Oh, no.
So it was at night. So she drove there and my wife and I followed her in the car. She didn't see us
to make sure she got there. Okay. And we went home and he said, call us when you're coming.
You know, there was no cell phone. So I said, call us when you're coming back.
She called us. We ran down the Butler skate land and followed her home.
And just before she got home, we pulled it, you know, got ahead of her. We pulled
in the driveway. I was, I was laying on the carpet the whole time at home saying,
please make this night end. Please make it end because she was, it was night she had kids in the car
with her, but she was great. Yeah. She had the one accident in her entire life. Actually two
accidents. One was she was parked in a school bus site swiped her and pulled the door off the car.
Oh, and the bus driver's work was her, but they were cameras. Yeah, it was the bus driver lying.
And the other one she was driving and a guy ran a red light and hit her broadside,
put her in the hospital and cracked a bunch of bones on her and so she was two accidents.
She said, but need one more. Yeah, guy ran red light and just hit her broadside and lucky
there were a whole bunch of cars. It was on Lincoln Boulevard in Milwaukee. And also the bus
driver just took her door off and then lied about it and they pulled out the, that's great for
cameras. I actually have one of the first in the state to actually put a dash camera in my car
and I use that footage to teach my kids. So when they're watching videos, they watch dashcam footage
of me teaching and certain things that have happened in front of us and that works out great.
But getting back to your story about the first drive, my twin boys, we came back from the DMV
after they both got their temporary license and I'm sorry, they're after they both passed a
road test got their probationary license and we pulled into the driveway and my wife had forgotten
something at the grocery store and about a mile down the road is Piggly Wigley and Union Grove.
And so we said, hey, can you guys go get this? And so the two of them got in that car and I'll
I'll never forget that was their first drive. But what's nice is life 360, you guys know what that is?
It's an amp where we can see where they are and we can see the speed they're going. We can, you
know, you can really monitor. I know a lot of kids don't like it, but it's a great way for parents
as long as they have their phone with them. You can see exactly the speed they're going and where
they are at all times. We can do what I do. Just lay on the floor and pray for the day to be out.
Pray for the night to be over. Please bring her home. I want to go to sleep. That's another option.
That's what I did. Okay, no speeding. Now you think that would be obvious? You would think so.
I get a lot of kids in the car for the first lesson. They'll just all of a sudden they're just
going five over and I always tell them, you know, where I'm not going to let you go five over. Your
parents might let you do that. And the biggest thing I stress to them too, and I don't lie to them,
I say I'd be lying to you if I told you I'd never drove five over. But I always tell them
but five hours isn't always okay because I tell them I'll give them an example. If we're out on
highway 20 and there's three lanes, it's 45 and maybe you're going 50 and that 45 with three wide
lanes and not a lot of traffic. Is it really that dangerous? I tell them probably not. It's still
a violation of the law. But then I tell them, okay, we're in a residential neighborhood,
25 speed zone. Sunday, you know, kids out everywhere. People riding bikes, people walking is 30,
okay, and a 25. And most of them will say, no, and I said, that's exactly it. You can't, you know,
five over isn't always okay. So I always tell I don't like parents when they tell their kids five
over is okay because I just don't think it always is. Well, I go to the speed limit when I come
in, it's about 5, 20 in the morning. And there's always somebody on my bumper because they're late
at work. And they're like trying to move me and I came with you. Their headlights are so close.
I'm going 30. If you don't want to go 30, get up earlier in the morning. You're not in such a
bit. I'm not in a rush. I'm going to get to work on plenty of time today. You know, I was telling
you before we went on the air today, my dad, when I had my learners permit, took me for, you know,
around the small streets and said, all right, let's go on the LIE long on expressway. I said,
no, he said, you're going to have to learn how to do this and learn with me because that's I now
how to drive this expressways. And your drivers and teachers are going to take you on the long
on expressway. Trust me. Let's go. So we went on there and I'm traveling at 55 miles an hour. He
said, no, pick it up. I said, 55, keep up with the flow of traffic, where you're going to cause an
accident because you're making people pass to you. They're going like 65 miles an hour. And
they're all trying to pass me and they're trying to cut other drivers off in the left lane to
get ahead of me. He said, keep up with the flow of traffic. Or you're going to cause a big accident.
And I was shaking. I said, like, I take the next exit. I can't handle this. But he was he was
right in a way. Yes, the speed limit was 55. But in reality, people were passing me. I tell kids,
there are there's that fine line. But I also tell them like, I'm the freeway out here when we do
our freeway lesson. There's four lanes when we're out there. And I say, if you go 70 in the right
lane, you'll be fine. There's three lanes for people to pass you. Even if it seems like everybody
on the freeway is going faster than you, you could still do the speed limit in that right lane and
not have to worry about it. But yes, there could be a situation where there aren't three, you know,
four lanes or three lanes. And traffic's moving real fast. And everybody's sort of in around you.
Or you might have to go a little faster. But that's, you know, there's a fine line there to
tell kids that I just remember to be safe. It's a jack word. We're keep up with the flow of
traffic. Where are you going to cause an accident? And parents tell their kids at all time. But
I always tell them, they're very rarely will you be in a situation where you're going to have to
speed to stay safe. So it's a rare situation, but I can't talking about staying safe with the
Racine County traffic safety commission. We're talking about driving teenage driving safety.
It should be everybody's driving safety teenage driver. And if you want, you can follow along to
what we're doing. Just go to Racine County dot com slash staying safe. Just see the list of all
the programs we've done, all our posters. And you look down the list. You'll see the latest one
is teenage driving safety. So go to Racine County dot com slash staying safe. And you'll see
it right there. And you've got an app to talk about. Yes, the Safe Roads app. That is one that has
been promoted for a couple of years at all our drivers at conferences. I believe bots is the one
who started that. And I've had on my phone for a couple of years. But what happens is you'll drive
after you get to your location within five to 10 minutes, it will ask you if you were the passenger
or if you were the driver and if you were the driver, then you click that and then it gives you
a score. Now how it scores you is, I'm looking at this right now on my phone. It's acceleration score,
break score, cornering score, steadiness score, a sort of score, a phone score, if you're on your
phone, and then a speed score. And the higher your scores are, after certain amount of time,
you get, if you keep the scores high, you actually win gift cards and like the Amazon and other places.
Great thing for teens and for adults to actually get gift cards and just for safe driving.
Let's get through our list here. No alcohol. Again, obvious. But you got teenagers. They go to
a party. They think nothing's wrong. I can take a drink or two. You'll be surprised how
blurry your eyes get after a few drinks. I don't drink. But I've heard stories about people
are, I'm gonna drive. No, you can't. That's why people die in car crashes because you can drive.
Yeah. You're drunk. Biggest problem with alcohol is that lowers your
inhibitions. So it makes you think that you're okay when you're not. There is a not a drop
law in Wisconsin. So anybody under 21 can't have any amount of alcohol in their system.
So they get pulled over and they blow a .01. That would be illegal for them. So it's not about
the intoxication limit if you're under 21. So that has been a good, you know, a law that's been
added. But it is definitely, you know, cell phones and drinking probably the two biggest problems,
I think, and Wisconsin would come. I would agree. I would agree. And I always ask kids,
I'll say how many times have you gone out, you know, with your parents or whatever to a fish fry
or something and your parents have had some drinks and then they drive you home. And I say,
well, you know, maybe they were okay. Maybe not. But you might, you know, it's one of those where,
you know, again, there's that line where, you know, what's okay and what's not. So with the,
but I stress with them that they absolutely can't have a drop in them. They can't even
transport alcohol knowingly until they're 21 years old. So if they had alcohol in the car,
containers period for anybody, but they can't even transfer. So I like if they went to a grocery
store with their parents, they could drive to the grocery store with their parents buy alcohol.
Even if they put it in the trunk, it doesn't matter. They can't transport it knowingly. So
and one more no driving or riding in your car without a seat belt.
Seat belts. Well, I ask kids, what's the biggest issue? You guys know what the biggest problem with
the seat belt law in Wisconsin? Do you know what the fine is? 10 bucks. 10 dollars. Yeah.
If you cross the border to Illinois, I believe it's close to 150. So I always tell them that's
the biggest problem because who's going to not wear a seat belt because they're worried about
$10 fine. So I wish they would up that. But I, you know, the amount of videos I show in the
amount I stress and I tell them, you know, I told you this already, but that is by far number one,
if something bad happens in the car, your best chance to survive is to have that seat belt on.
We had a teacher that a science teacher that's retired. He was a fire chief in Union Grove and he
said he told me for 22 years, he would go to different traffic accidents where people were killed.
And he said in 22 years, twice, he had to take a seat belt off of a dead person. He said twice.
He said every other time it was somebody that didn't have a seat belt on. Well, the manufacturers
of cars do something interesting. They put that annoying bill that won't stop. Yeah.
And that's how just that shut it up. You want to put your seat belt on. That car you can't
shift until it's he belts on. You can't get it. Yeah. Is that building in your car especially?
No, ours is just we just buy the car and but the newer cars a lot of them have that song.
And you get that break. The passengers side break into which I would love to have,
but I'd be stopping the car every few seconds. I would you tell you my story.
So I got a car for my senior year in high school and get a car using my mother's car.
So I got my license and now you're the magnet. All the kids love you. All the people that
wouldn't talk to you for the first three years in high school. Now I want to be your best friend.
So we have the senior carnival. It was a Saturday night and it could say can you drive me home?
And the prettiest girl there said, Oh, can you drive me home? Of course, everybody else out.
She wants to drive home. So I've got four kids and I go to start the car and it won't start.
And we're waiting and waiting. Finally, they all vanish because they want to get to where they're
going. Parties and everything. I'm all alone. I go to a pay phone call my mother. She comes down,
get this in her bathroom with curlers in her hair and a jacket over her bathroom. I said,
I think God, nobody saw her. And she starts the car right away. I flooded the car.
And these are these are older cars, you know, and I flooded the car. She started it right up
and she was angry because I woke her up to get down there to the high school and start the car.
So I went home alone. But thank goodness because my mother, I didn't want to see nobody wanted
to see that picture. So that was my driving. So when we had our senior prom, a lot of kids,
we had at the world's fair, the old 65 world's fair. A lot of kids drove the queen to go to the
thing. I said, no, you know, I, the girl I don't want to dress, take the bus. I mean, you're driving
at night. You're driving a lot of kids on the road. You know, no alcohol, but still we took the bus
to play it safe. And you know, you don't have to drive everywhere. There's public transportation.
If you have to go somewhere, it's going to be late at night. You think it might be tired.
So a couple of us took the bus. I do believe Uber, you know, those companies like that have
helped with, especially the drinking and driving. I really do think that's helped a lot where people
will be out. And they will just Uber somewhere or what's the other ones? I don't know what the other
ones are, but no, taxi cab. If you're not in a city that has a lot of taxi cabs, yeah, taxi is a great.
But it seems like that's changed a little bit. I think that has helped my.
Thank you, Tom Knitter. Tom Knitter from the Racine County Traffic Safety Commission,
always putting these shows together. I really do appreciate it.
Very welcome. Thank you for having us on. Yeah, again, I would refer people to take a look at
the website that's got the poster under. And it's got a couple links. One of them is to the app
that Jeff talked about. The other thing would be if people want more information about
teen driving safety and some of the statistics in Wisconsin, as well as so many other things.
Wisconsin DOT does an excellent job of putting the information out there. And we've got
a link on the poster that people can at least get the information. Thank you, Jeff Urban,
Union Grove High School Drivers Head Program. You bet. The one thing I do, I was talking to Tom
about too, is if you ever go to, you could just Google Community Maps and you can take a look at how
many accidents have been in the state for the year. You can check in year. And when I just
checked it this morning, 50s as of today, just this year in 2025, 56 teens have been killed on
Wisconsin roads. So just, you know, that's one reason why I'm here and one reason I wanted to come
on here to promote safe teen driving because it's just so important. It started for me as helping
out. I was helping my father-in-law actually. He was encouraged me to get certified. My wife
is actually certified to teach. She doesn't teach it anymore. But so we were just teaching it for
the summer. It was just a summer job and make more money. But now it's, it's definitely become a
passion for me for the last 28 years to try to keep these kids safe. So I've knocked on wood. I have
yet, I have one of my students that I have taught get killed in a car accident at our school.
Now, four, four kids have died and one teacher since I've been there that in car accident. So
okay, if you missed any of this, it'll be podcast either um tonight or tomorrow morning.
You can listen with just go to wrjn.com wherever you get your podcasts, search Don Rose and show
and you'll see it up there. Thanks guys.
