Illinois Injury Law Blog

Most Illinois teens learn to drive by taking a driver's education course at school or by taking lessons from a private driving school. A recent article in the Chicago Tribune has our Illnois injury lawyers concerned about teen safety considering what kinds of vehicles are being used to teach inexperienced young drivers the rules of the road.

Parents have a right to be worried about the high risk of teen car accidents and child injuries at Chicago schools while their teen is practicing their driving skills with a school employee.

The Chicago Tribune reports that the quality and crash ratings of the cars being used for driver's education class by some school districts are subpar. School districts may not be able to afford a car with an excellent crash rating, so they cut their costs by providing low performance and fuel-efficient smaller vehicles while putting teens at risk of severe injury if they are involved in an accident.

The Chevy Cobalt is an example of one car being used, which has poor side crash ratings but most cars are just plain outdated. Chicago Public Schools use cars classified as the worst-rated driver's education cars in the state. Apparently where you live has a lot to do with what kind of car you take lessons in, according to an analysis which indicated 1,300 different cars are used in almost 60 different school districts.

The analysis has raised some eyebrows at the state level. The fact that some districts opt to not purchase a car with airbags or utilize a vehicle more than 10 or 15 years old to teach teens how to drive is cause for discussion. Senator Susan Garrett intends to schedule a hearing to look at driver's education in public and private schools.

As part of the analysis process, the Tribune filed approximately 60 Freedom of Information Act requests with different school districts throughout the state to get the year, make and model of driver's education cars used in classes. The next step was to get the crash test ratings for each car used in 2010 and 2011 from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS). Key findings concluded that some school districts do not keep comprehensive records, including when an accident occurs in a driver's education vehicle. When school districts were asked about car safety, most indicated that it was not a priority compared to fuel efficiency and actual price of a vehicle.

Chicago Public Schools use several poorly rated cars according to IIHS crash and safety ratings despite being the largest provider of driver's education courses in the state. The school district has 163 cars available in the fleet of which only 113 are used on roadways. The oldest car in the group is a 1990 Dodge Shadow, but most of the cars used are Plymouth Breezes, Chevy Cavaliers and Plymouth Neons dated with a 2000 make year or older. The majority of the cars rate poorly because they lack airbags.

As parents, we do our best to ensure our children's safety. Before you enroll your teen driver in a driver education course, don't be afraid to ask questions and make sure you feel confident with the teacher's abilities and that the vehicle being used will keep your teen safe if an accident occurs while they are learning to drive.