"Why should children not be allowed to drive automobiles?"
This question is being asked by many fathers and mothers in the country today, as they see their children skillfully operating the family car.

One answer of course is that the motor vehicle laws of most of the states regulate the age of the driver, and these regulations state very emphatically the minimum age requirement for that state.

Another answer is that the automobile owner may invalidate his insurance by letting a child drive his car.

Many fathers and mothers, who allow their children to drive, do not realize that the standard automobile policy gives no coverage against collision, public liability, and property damage, while the automobile is being operated by any person under the age limit fixed by law, or, in any event, under the age of 14 years.

If the legal age minimum is 14 in any particular state this coincides with the insurance companies’ stipulation. But if the minimum age requirement of the state is 15, 16, 17, or 18, this age is accepted as the minimum under the standard automobile policy issued by the insurance companies.

In other words, the insurance company accepts the state, federal or provincial law as its basis; but in the event there is no age limit specified for any particular state, then the minimum requirement for the automobile insurance policy is fourteen years.

It is natural that a parent who knows his children better than anyone else can possibly know them should feel that this age regulation entails a hardship on himself or his family at times. He may feel that it is unjust.

A father may be conscious of the fact that his boy or girl is a better driver than himself or his wife. He knows that Dorothy Ann or Jimmy comes home with pretty high marks in some of the most difficult subjects at school. That the child has poise that is quite unnatural for his age, and parental pride prompts the feeling that while the age ruling may be a good thing for the general run of children it is really quite out of place as far as Dorothy Ann or Jimmy is concerned.

Admittedly, there are children who are well balanced and who might be expected to show a level head in a crisis. The fact remains, however, that the automobile, with its tremendous power and speed, is too dangerous a vehicle to be turned over to any child.

The lives of too many people are at stake on the streets and highways for such a potential instrument of death to be lightly places in the hands of juniors. However bright theses children may be they are still children.

In a survey conducted by one of the Safety Councils in California it was found that nearly one-third of all accidents by drivers of motor vehicles were being caused by drivers under twenty years of age.

In 1935, 36,400 men, women and children were killed, and over a million others injured, in automobile accidents in the United States. This means a death rate of 28.5 per 100,000 population. The number of operated motor vehicles has increased 41.7 per cent in the United States during the past ten years, while fatal accidents have increased 61 per cent. With the number of accidents last year the greatest in history, we find more and more people permitting their children to drive.

The agent who sells automobile insurance to a client whose minor children are being allowed to operate the automobile should make an appeal to this parent. He might appeal to him on the grounds of good citizenship and a respect for the law, or his appeal might take the form of a warning in regard to indemnification in the event of accident.

The agent should familiarize himself with the policy’s provision that the collision, property damage or public liability coverages do not apply while the automobile is operated by any person under the age of 14 years, or by any person in violation of any states, federal or provincial law as to age applicable to such person … or to his occupation.

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