[quote=Thirteendog]You know they are called accidents for a reason.
Mark a 17 year old driver is just as experienced as a 26 year old driver that started driving at 25. I think our country has become a little to lawsuit happy. [quote]
The police around here have stopped using the word 'accident' as they say crashes are not accidents. A tree falling on your car is an accident, hitting another car with yours is not an accident as someone is at fault somewhere.
In this case the kid was wrongly on the other side of the road, he was not there by accident. Even if he slid there on ice it is his fault as he should have been in control of his vehicle.

I have just personally seen a case of bad judgment by a 17 year old. He had his mothers car and went out of his way by ten miles to pick up a friend to take to school.
In his rush he overtook a fuel oil truck on a snow covered side road and ended up in the ditch with $5,000 damage to the car. My wife had told him days before not to go on the side roads freshly covered in snow. Both kids were late for school of course.
The mothers car insurance told her they would not cover him to drive the car again. Her insurance will go up, they would insure him alone at a cost near $6,000 with no collision on his car. In other words 'we really do not need your business'. This will remain on his record for some time now and cost him dearly.
The kid was lucky, the truck driver said he would have to go as he did not have the license to drive that truck, the police came and it was listed as a single vehicle accident. Had the cops known he was overtaking a truck he would have been hit with a careless driving charge I'm sure.