Four teenagers were among the dead after a crash Sunday in Cambridge.
A 16-year-old girl was killed Saturday night in a two-vehicle crash near Onamia.
Three teens were killed Friday when a pickup truck rolled in southeast Minnesota.
Three days. Three crashes. In all, 10 people, most of them high school students, were killed this past weekend on Minnesota roads.
Parents, there's no better time than right now to talk to your young drivers. It doesn't matter if your kid aced the written exam and nailed behind-the-wheel, the talk needs to happen.
Not only do your novice drivers need to be reminded of new laws, you must also remind them to drive defensively at all times - that there are plenty of adult drivers on the roads who don't always follow the rules or who might be driving under the influence.
Tell them to turn their cell phones off, too, when they're driving while you're at it.
Law enforcement officials have said numerous laws were violated in those three weekend crashes. In the Cambridge crash at 2:40 in the morning Sunday, the driver was 16, the ink on her license barely dry. The car smelled of alcohol. Passengers were ejected because they weren't wearing their seatbelt.
There are plenty of relatively new laws out there, some that pertain specifically to younger drivers hitting the roads with feelings of freedom and invulnerability. They're illegally loading the car with three or four friends who are nothing more than a distraction. Add in the fact that they probably all have cell phones and it's no surprise these young drivers find it difficult to keep their attention on the road.
Most young drivers are responsible enough to abide by the laws, but it only takes one irresponsible driver to cause a crash.
Being a good driver means more than knowing who has the right-of-way at a four-way intersection, or being able to parallel park the family SUV. It means knowing the laws and being mature enough to handle everything that comes with driving on their own. Your child might have passed all of his or her tests, but that doesn't necessarily make them road-ready. If anything, it gives them a false sense of security.