After reading your Nov. 5, 2008 article “State Puts Focus on Inexperienced Drivers,” I was delighted, moved and proud. The proposals made by Freehold Regional High School District Superintendent of Schools James Wasser to identify young drivers and Project Lundy are issues that I hold near and dear to my heart.
It was on Jan. 24, 2007, that the News Transcript found it important enough to publish my letter to the editor titled “Young Drivers Need to be Identified in Vehicles.” My letter asked for identification stickers on vehicles operated by our newest and youngest drivers — effectively our children. I invite your readers to revisit that letter. They can do so by going to your Web site [email protected], and searching “Archives,” Jan. 24, 2007 (editorials).
Shortly after the letter was released, I took it upon myself to design, print and affix two stickers (just smaller than the size of an inspection sticker) to both the front windshield (at the top of the inspection sticker) and on the top left side of the rear window.
I then contacted Lt Robert Brightman from the Freehold Township Police Department and advised him that I had done so and that there were other extended family members who agreed to do the same with their own new drivers.
I requested that if any of these vehicles were spotted and the provisional license laws were being abused, that the police immediately stop the vehicle, as a favor to the parents of the occupants. Thankfully, to date, I never received a call that any of our “stickered” cars had been stopped.
Some parents might think this is an “over the top” method of keeping kids in line while behind the wheel.
Let me tell you what my daughter said to me when I asked her to display the stickers, “If nothing else, dad, peer pressure of kids that might say, ‘Hey, come on … just give us a ride home, nobody will see,’ can be answered by ‘I can’t, because if the cops see my sticker and count the heads … I’m gonna lose my car!’ ” Or, “I can’t stay longer because my stickers glow in the dark and I gotta be home before midnight, because if I get stopped … etc.”
She is now in college and thanked me for those stickers because she did have to tell friends, “Sorry guys, I do not want to lose my car.”
The last line of my letter offered a catch phrase that hopefully, if the sticker legislation goes through, after almost two years from the date of that tragic event and the subsequent letter, it will impress others on the road that kids need room to breathe.
While I am on the subject of my daughter (and if I sound like a proud dad … well, guilty as charged). Along with Freehold Township senior, and one of my daughter’s best friends, Samantha Patino, the brainchild of Project Lundy, my daughter Ashlie, her friend Adj Tepodino and a number of her other classmates received individual letters from the governor of New Jersey at their senior awards assembly, commending these kids for the hard work putting Project Lundy together, getting it to the attention of their peers and being instrumental in saving lives. Truly a proud moment in our lives.
My daughter and her friends are good drivers, obey the laws and encourage their peers to do the same.
Please, New Jersey Legislature, get this passed. I dare say that it is the most important line item on your agenda that day. It will save lives. Superintendent Wasser, please be so kind as to report back on the results of the mid-November meeting. Thank you in advance and everyone, when you are out on the roads this holiday season and simply year-round, you need to remember that kids need room … to breathe.
Jeff Kneler
Freehold Township

