Every parent remembers the first time they handed over the keys.
You try to act calm. You say something responsible like, “Text me when you get there,” even though what you really want to say is, “Please understand that my entire heart is backing out of this driveway in a used Honda.”
Then the taillights disappear, and you stand there pretending the lawn suddenly needs inspection. That is why the new numbers out of Colorado hit hard.
The Denver Post reports that 86 drivers and passengers ages 15 to 20 died in crashes on Colorado roads in 2025. That is a 91% increase from the 45 deaths recorded in 2015, according to the Colorado Department of Transportation. State officials said the top factors in teen crashes last year were distracted driving, speeding, lane violations, and following too closely. More than a third of teens who died in crashes were not wearing seat belts.
Those are traffic statistics on paper.
In real life, they are empty chairs. They are wrecked families. They are sheriff’s deputies knocking on doors. They are classmates trying to make sense of a locker that suddenly becomes a memorial.
And too often, they begin with a teenager who thought one glance at the phone would not matter.
Most of us were dumb at sixteen. Let’s be honest. We had confidence we had not earned, reflexes we overestimated, and a deep belief that bad things happened to other people. The difference now is that the dumb comes with a smartphone, more distractions, busier roads, and 4,000 pounds of metal.
Colorado driving is not gentle.
We have rural highways where one bad decision can go unnoticed until it is too late. We have suburban arterials that feel like speedways with traffic lights. We have mountain roads, dark mornings, late nights, weather that changes its mind like a toddler near bedtime, and construction zones that appear to have been designed by a committee of raccoons.
Young drivers need more than a license. They need judgment. And judgment does not magically arrive because a teenager passed a test and smiled for a terrible DMV photo.
Government can run safety campaigns and post signs until the cows come home. Some of that helps. Good information matters. But the first line of defense is still a parent in the driveway saying, “Look at me. This car can change your life in ten seconds.”
Not as a lecture. As the truth.
Wear the seat belt. Put the phone away. Slow down. Leave room. Do not show off. Do not drive angry. Do not let a car full of friends turn your brain into pudding.
And parents, yes, we have to model it. That part is inconvenient because teenagers have eyes. If we tailgate, text, speed, and treat yellow lights like a personal challenge, they learn that too.
Safe driving is not a DMV checkbox. It is a life skill.
Coaches can say it. Grandparents can say it. Teachers can say it. Friends can say it. Parents have to say it until the kid rolls his eyes so hard you worry he strained something.
Then say it again.
Freedom is wonderful. But the keys come with weight. Colorado cannot bring back the kids already lost.
But we can decide the next decade does not have to look like the last one.
Source: Denver Post
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