It was raining, and I was driving my 1976 Volvo sedan at a snail's pace. I don't think I was like many of my counterparts; I was actually a very nervous (and therefore very careful) driver until I got some confidence and became a road demon like everyone else. Anyway, I was creeping along in the left lane of a two-lane-each-way city road, and this woman (who was obviously in a hurry), turned right out of an apartment parking lot and was going too fast in the slippery conditions to only go into the right-hand lane as I'm sure she intended. Instead she careened into my panicked self in the left-hand lane. We pulled over, and, as I was crying and shaking, she started yelling at me telling me she was in a rush and I'd ruined her day and I needed to stay in my own lane, etc.

While nervous and upset (and luckily not hurt), I STILL knew I had never strayed out of my lane, and that she had in fact spanned two lanes and crashed into me. I stood my ground, but she was pulling the whole "you're a young driver, it's obviously your fault" attitude. We gave each other our information, with the frazzled and rude lady threatening to come after me. Being young and uninformed, I did not know to find a witness or call the police to prove that I was in the right. I went home and sniffled out the story to my mom, who, bless her heart, instantly believed me and started taking the proper measures.

To make a long story short(er), the lady tried to hold her ground that I was in the wrong, calling me that crazy teenage driver, and I started getting shakier and shakier on my story, not being a confident driver yet. We finally got pictures of the damage to my car taken by our insurance company, which proved that I was right and she was wrong. Once she found this out, and we tracked her down, she had moved out of state and left no forwarding address. Which was really fun to deal with (note heavy sarcasm).

Anyway, the moral of the story is this: teenage drivers are not ALWAYS the problem. Sometimes there are immoral people out there who will blame a teenager just because they can. Not to say there aren't plenty of bad new drivers on the road creating traffic problems, but don't always assume it's the teenager at fault. Just give them their space and allow them to learn to become a good and confident driver, just as you did back when you were young. If you are a teenage driver, or have one in your household, you should check out the section of one of InsWeb's special reports entitled "Teen Drivers Take It Slow"