Something about the laws in Austria and why they are better when the situation is not
(actually it is statistically but the frontpage accidents happen anyway)
I'm not sure how car insurance is handled in the US/Canada but here it is obligatory and the younger the driver the higher. And car tax here is based on hp. Also young drivers with high-powered car are paying even more and that's not 5% but rather 30-40% - aside from the fact of course that a new car owner always pays more and that after some years of accident-free driving you can halve the cost of your insurance.
Drinking age is low here. It's 16 for beer, wine,... and 18 for booze. This is however controlled very leniently (no ID checks, no harsh punishments,...). In fact if he's lucky a 6-year old could buy a bottle of vodka and a pack of cigarettes claiming it's for his father. And if he's 13 he'll probably get a beer or a scotch at a bar. But juvenile alcoholism is not the point here
Driving age however is at 18 so basically a normal youngster when he starts to drive has already made experiences with alcohol and lived through his wild years. They still get drunk but not quite as often and the punishments for drunk driving (anything over 0.01 BAC) on a first year licence are harsh as they are on speeding. In fact speeding at 15mph over the limit can get your licence revoked in the first year.
This does work okay with ost kids in the city. It's also better than in some countries overall. But the weak spot is the country where people will drive to a disco get drunk and drive home usually at very high speed because streets are deserted at night.
Counter-measures the speeders take to avoid high insurance ...
The buy low-powered cars and tune them without adding that to the deed. Thus they pay insurance/tax for a 60hp car and drive a 160hp car. Or they buy/register the car over their parents. Insurances and government are however working on closing these gaps (e.g. car insurance goes up if you have a juvenile driver in the family).
What did I want to say [img]graemlins/confused2.gif[/img]
Yeah,
As long as alcohol is a legal part of society let kids learn how to handle it.
Try to ensure that no kid can drive a Porsche.