Years ago my cousin Paul died in a car accident when he was 16. He was alone in the car, and driving at night. It's one of those things you don't really get over, you move on, but that will stay with you, I think because he was so young and had hardly had a chance at life.

The other night I was watching like a documentary type show on kids and driving. It not only had a bit on how car and booster seats save lives, but also on graduated licensing. It went over the problems and statistics of young drivers, and the elevated risks involved in different situations. It was an american program and showed how one state that had developed a completely graduated licensing program had made a difference in the lives and safety of teens. The state had rules similar to canadian graduated licensing like not being allowed to drive by yourself for a certain amount of time, or at night, and having to log a certain amount of hours driving with a parent or guardian at different times, like day and night, and highway and ect. And the statistics after the system had been put in place changed drasticly. There was a 25% reduction in the rate of young drivers accidents. It really seemed so simple, the procedures they put in place but that saves countless numbers of lives. By now, many other states have also gone to graduated licesing systems, but many were only partial systems, and thus were not very effective.

I was always kind of lukewam, in the middle about how I felt about the graduated licensing system. I thought it was probally a good idea, you know, but that it was a pain that it didn't happen a little later, for it was only instated in canada a few years before I was eligable to get my license. And I thought, uh, couldn't they have waited a few years more until I got my license and then it wouldn't have taken me this long.

And then I watched that documentary. And I realized that if there had been a graduated licensing system in place in Tenessee when my cousin Paul first got his license, he never would have been driving by himself at 16, an inexperienced driver facing bad weather at night by himself. And that maybe he wouldn't have died that night.

And when I realized that, my lukewarm view on the graduated licensing system swung completly and absolutely to one side. Whereas before I thought why couldn't they have waited a little longer, now I think why couldn't they have done it a little sooner. It might have saved my cousins life. And although it didn't save him, I think about the other people it can now save. I thought about my brother, and my other cousins, and how glad I am graduated driving is now the law in Canada, because I couldn't stand it if I lost anyone else that way.

It didn't save Paul, and god how much I miss him...but it will save other people.

Now I fully support the graduated licensing system, in Canada, in the United States, wherever. For him. Because it might save someones elses cousin, or brother, or son. Someone else in my family, or even me.

In memory of Paul Jolicouer. I love you, I miss you, always and forever in my heart.