On Wednesday, three Oxford Hills teens were in a car that crashed into a stand of trees in Norway with such force that the engine block was separated from the car and tossed some distance away. The car caught fire and the teens were injured, but they were fortunate.

They are still alive.

Two teens in Wiscasset died later Wednesday in a fiery crash.

In both cases, police point to speed as a contributing factor.

Last year, 26 teens in Maine were killed in car crashes caused primarily by speed and teen driver inexperience.

Teens, cars and speed can be a deadly combination. It’s one Maine will try to crack.

On Wednesday, just hours before the crashes in Norway and Wiscasset, the state launched an initiative aimed at reducing teen speeding, hoping the program will then also reduce the number of injuries and deaths.

The program, called SAFEGuard or “Your Parents Will be the First to Know,” is pretty simple.

Participating police – state, county and local – will call the parents of teens stopped for certain moving violations, like speeding and OUI. Parents will know immediately if their child – who quite possibly could be driving the family car under the family’s insurance – has been issued a ticket or warning. Police will also call the parents of passengers riding in cars driven by ticketed teens, with the idea that parents will further instruct their children on safe driving habits and further warn them of the risks of speeding.

Since parents are legally responsible for their children until they’re 18, it seems reasonable for law enforcement to alert parents of children’s dangerous behavior.

Initial reaction to the state’s plan was predictable. The parents we talked to like the idea. Teens don’t like it at all.

Parents want to know if their children are in danger so they can intervene. Teens believe their driving behavior is their own business.

It isn’t.

Driving is a privilege that can be taken away if violated, and driving well takes years of practice. Although teens take driver education classes to earn learning permits and learn the basics, it is parents who bear the responsibility of teaching them how to drive. Parental supervision and responsibility of minors does not stop after a license is issued.

When teens speed they endanger themselves and others. Of the 34 fatal crashes at the hands of teen drivers in Maine last year, 18 drivers were killed. The remaining 20 people who died were passengers in those or other cars.

Police, the state Bureau of Health, the Secretary of State’s Office and other agencies in Maine want to reduce these tragic numbers with phone calls. It is a plan that will take time and commitment of police officers statewide, but it is also a plan that tackles public safety in an immediate and active way.

Parents certainly do not want to get calls from police officers telling them their child has been ticketed for speeding. It’s a hassle to deal with suspended licenses and fines and certainly doesn’t enrich dinner table conversation, but it gives parents an opportunity to adjust children’s behavior.

It is immeasurably better for parents to get that call than to get a call from a police officer that their child is dead. Killed in a car wreck at the hands of an inexperienced teenager who was driving too fast.