It's not entirely clear how this relates to the above, but something that shook me badly recently was hearing that the 16/17yo son of an acquaintance of mine had been killed in a car accident. The shocking part was that he had written off his own car the day before, in an accident which was known to be his own fault. His mother had tweeted about her relief that he and the other driver were OK, and that he wasn't going to be driving again for a while. But the next day, in fact, he drove the family car to school - and was killed. (Those are the bald facts. I don't know anything about the decision making process that lies behind them. For me the lesson comes from imagining it, and it doesn't really matter whether what I imagine is or isn't true.)
What a terrible tragedy. How heartbreaking, I feel very sorry for those parents.
Having had a teenager who had a car accident, I could see the reasoning behind letting the child take the car to school the next day. It would depend on the situation, but after having an accident it can often be useful to "get back on the horse" again and keep driving. If the accident was caused by something reckless, then I would not let my child drive for a while. But accidents do happen, it's a risk you have to take when decided to let your child learn to drive. And yes as a parent you don't have to let your under 18 year old learn to drive. I know more and more kids who wait till they are 18 to learn to drive.
In my daughter case her accident really scared her, she misjudged a unprotected left turn into her H.S. parking lot while going to an after school event. No one was hurt but the car was completely disabled. (When I got to the scene there were 5 police cars.. freaked me out.) It was the kind of accident caused by inexperience. Our other car is a stick & she didn't know how to use it and she couldn't drive the rental. So she didn't drive for a week till the car was fixed and then for a a few weeks she went back to only driving when I was in the car.
