As any reader of this blog has seen, I don’t always agree with the Editorial Board of the Philadelphia Inquirer – especially after the pro-Right/Big Business bias evident in the post-Tierney ownership era. But that won’t stop me from giving a strong vote of approval to the Inquirer’s New Years morning editorial: “Driving Rites.”  I would actually add some important information to the editorial. For example, every time I speak to parent groups about safe teen driving, I usually remind them that the number one cause of death among teens in the United States is motor vehicle accidents. Over 5,000 teens a year are killed in cars. Understand this simple fact – kids die in cars – more than any other cause of death.

Imagine just for a minute if we dedicated the sort of resources to saving teen lives in cars that we would dedicate to a medical cause of teen death.

I agree with the editorial that a good place to start is to limit the number of passengers permitted in any car driven by a youthful driver in Pennsylvania. While we’re talking about a wish list for the Pennsylvania legislators, how about taking real steps to limit cell phones and text messaging in cars? There was some really positive initiative for this last year but legislation introduced by Rep. Josh Shapiro was tanked for reasons that had more to do with petty politics than good lawmaking.

Maybe, just maybe, 2010 will be the year when Pennsylvania moves to the forefront of states promoting safe teen driving.