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t iaygi economist sunsuntribune saturday aug 2 2003 ross elliott teaches teenagers to drive for young drivers of canada promoting safe driving among teenagers starts at home by jeff mitchell staff writer dad can i borrow the car if those six words send chills up and down your spine take heart there are ways to ensure both your child and your vehicle make it home unscathed the key elements of keeping kids safe on the roads are communication preparation and trust according to experts professional driving instruction com bined with diligence and support from par ents can help kids gain and retain the knowl edge and good practices theyll need to sur vive york regions teeming roadways said ross elliott an instructor with young drivers of canada keeping the road safe is what i do mr elliott said and while he has made a career of on- theroad instruction mr elliott insists its up to parents to follow through and reinforce the information their teenagers are digest ing good drivers are those who are knowl edgeable and confident mr elliott said arid the only way for young people to become confident in themselves and their driving abilities is to get behindthewheel experi ence it can be a trying experience to be sure as a driver you have total control of the vehicle as a codriver you have given up control parents should be encouraging and not push young drivers too hard mr elliott said his method involves the incremental intro duction of challenges for new drivers start off in a parking lot then graduate to a quiet street as the driver progresses they move on to busier moroughfares with traffic lights and competing traffic what the child does is a reflection of what the parents been doing for the past 15 years its a good idea to take stock of ones own driving habits and examine them for quirks that shouldnt be passed along to new driv ers for the most part a young adult reflects how the parent drives mr elliott said what the child does is a reflection of what the parents been doing for the past 15 years young drivers does offer a seminar for parents who will be strapping on seatbelts and riding along with their children in addi tion to training hints they provide instruc tion on evasive action taking control of the wheel for instance or shifting the vehicle into neutral just in case but there will come a time when circum stances including the young persons licence status dictate that youll be watching as your son or daughter backs the car down the driveway on his or her own thats where trust and communication come in sometimes a pact of sorts will be appro priate garydirenfeldpf dundas ont has creat- r ed the i promise program a safe driving ini tiative designed for families with young driv ers i promise consists of a parentyouth con tract and a decal which is placed in the rear window of the femily car encouraging others to call the posted phone number if they observe inappropriate behaviour on the road parents promise to keep the car in safe working order and act as suitable role mod els young drivers pledge to drive sober wear a seatbelt and practise other sound habits mr direnfeld established the program as a response to the alarming number of fatal crashes involving teenagers he is of the opinion encouraging good driving habits and establishing mutual trust will help pre- vent the risktaking that leads to accidents teen drivers arent necessarily poor driv ers but they are prone to taking risks he said we still need to protect teenagers from themselves close to 400 teenagers lose their lives annually in traffic accidents in canada he said other organizations including young drivers of canada and students against drunkdriving circulate similar contracts our goal is not to catch bad drivers mr direnfeld said our goal is to promote safe driving ladder will let fish spawn upstream bymikeadler staff writer the milne dani fish ladder nearing com pletion in markham will create a new aquat ic community in parts of the upper rouge river but that community will be gated and guarded undesirable creatures larger than a minnow will be kept out a screen blocks the top of the double set of concrete baffles on the western side of the reservoir at milne dam conservation area carp have already started to climb the lad der trying to pass through mark heaton fisheries biologist for the natural resources ministry said this week the fish are coming up to a dead end by spring a cage will be ready behind the screen to capture fish desirable species will be allowed through sea lamprey a parasitic primitive fish will be euthanized when it is found in the cage and carp probably will be too mr heaton said the reservoirs the cleanest ive seen it in years normally we get four inches of visibility weve got a couple of feet now the fish ladder operated with help from the metro east anglers club will let fish swim through the rouge in markham to spawn in whitchurchstouffville and in headwater streams in richiriond hill perhaps for the first time since early settlers and loggers dammed the rouge but the 800000 cost was paid by develop ers who thanks to a 1998 dealwill be permit ted to destroy all 34 kilometres of fish habitat remaining in the markham neighbourhood of cornell where streams flow into another rouge tributary the little rouge conservationists also fear for the health of rouge streams in richmond hills leslie north area where builders await an ontario municipal board hearing final touches on the fish ladder should be completed in two weeks and the reservoir at milne drained for the project is being refilled mr heaton said the reservoirs the cleanest ive seen it in years he added because draining at removed the bottomfeeding carp arid allowed plants to grow consolidating sedi ment normally we get four inches of visibility weve got acouple of feet now construction of the ladder which took three years to design began in january mm km if-v- renovation company specializing in kitchen bath home htemm qrsy holcbsh 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