Young drivers are dying on our highways. The first thing this state always wants to do is add restrictions to existing statues instead of taking care of the real problem in the first place: the road test.

This is supposed to be a test to see if someone can control a vehicle safe enough as not to cause injury to themselves or others.

I’m not sure about all cities but, for the most part, the test is given at speeds not exceeding 35 mph. I don’t believe many drivers have died at this speed.

The test is always given in daylight hours. Again, I don’t think you’ll find many young deaths during the day.

On slippery, snowy days they cancel driving tests. Why? Six months out of the year we could be driving in these conditions.

About a fourth of the road test involves parallel parking; not many people die this way.

Do you have any idea how many people in this state, young and old, don’t know how to correctly and safely enter a highway from on-ramps?

Or how about keeping your front wheels straight while sitting in traffic to turn left? In case you get rammed it doesn’t send you head-on into oncoming cars. This alone has killed a dozen of people in the last 10 years that I know of.

What about making wide swings when turning by turning a little left before turning right and vice-versa? Or driving with your left foot on the brake all the time so the guy behind you doesn’t have a clue when you’re really going to stop because your brake lights are always flashing?

Most of these things aren’t even taught in driving schools.

It takes years to become a really good driver, but without real road tests it’s up to us parents to see that our kids know how to drive. Not restrictions that eventually get lifted like magic, and, bang, now you know how to drive.

Michael Shaw, Auburn