Dear Ms. Mayor,

I live in the 800 block of "Ocean Street", fairly close to the Police Station and around the corner from a Fire Station. There is now graffiti on the telephone pole outside of this apartment complex. I've never seen it around this area before. Additionally, there is graffiti quite often in and around the elevator of Ralph's grocery store downtown. Of course, the gang fighting and murders are increasing now, too. I understand there was another murder this past Monday because of a gang fight in which 2 others were injured.

What is being done about this? This should be Santa Barbara's number one priority. The quality of living in this town, where I've lived for 40+ years, has declined, with overcrowding, trash, graffiti, gangs, illegal immigrant crime, and no traffic control, considerably in the past 15 years.

I'm sorry to see it. I never thought I'd say it but I'm thinking of moving. I hope City Council and the Police Department are giving this problem the time, resources, and attention it deserves.

Thank you for your service to Santa Barbara. I know it can't be an easy job.

Sincerely,

Longtime Resident
800 "Ocean Street"
Santa Barbara, CA 93109

We begin a lot of our articles here at Edmunds.com in a light, jocular tone. Hey, we like to have as much fun as the next guy (or girl), and most of us are in this business because we love cars. The automotive industry is a fun place to work.

Still, it's difficult to find anything to laugh about in our current topic. Teen driver deaths and injuries litter our country's automotive landscape like a junkyard of wasted lives.

We've sniffed around the teen driver topic from time to time, dropping in an article here, a graphic there, but we've never attacked it head-on. Not as we knew we could, or should.

After discussions in our editorial offices, we felt it was time to address the issue. Why now? Frankly, folks, we're sick of reading news accounts of new driver fatalities. It's stupid and redundant.

No driver safety problem plagues us more than this one. Too many young drivers are dying. In spite of the safety advances of the last few decades -- seatbelts, airbags, improved crash standards -- teen driver death rates remain unacceptably high.

What can be done?

We've decided to explore this issue in a series of articles aimed at uncovering the myths and mistakes of the new driver experience. We find no automotive-related topic more pressing, no need more urgent. We intend to lay it bare, folks, to get at the root of this problem.

The teen driving crisis goes beyond our interest in accident rates and fatalities and runs to the very core of American identity. Since the post-World War II boom, we've flooded our freeways with metal, crowded them with chrome. Mobility -- that magic elixir of freedom, spiked with gasoline, peppered with burnt rubber -- defines Americans not only to ourselves but to the rest of the world.

As automotive journalists -- more than that, though, as human beings who love the smell of cars, the look of cars, the idea of cars -- we feel duty-bound to confront this issue. Further, as drivers who likely caught the germ as we entered our teen years (some of us much earlier), and as parents whose children have now begun to drive, we bear a responsibility to our families and communities.

It is in those communities, in those families, that the phone call comes one night, against all logic and all hope: a child has died behind the wheel of a car. In smaller communities, an officer might come to the house, hat in hand, knocking on the screen door on an otherwise peaceful evening.

This call frequently occurs in several homes at the same time, for young drivers increasingly die in groups.

Case in point: A couple of years ago, in a suburb of Los Angeles not far from our editorial offices, an entourage of several cars loaded with young people bolted down the Antelope (14) Freeway. The 14 runs north-south, a main commuter artery connecting the upper desert communities of Palmdale and Lancaster to Los Angeles. Anyone who has driven this freeway knows to watch their downhill speed when traveling southward, not just for law enforcement concerns but to keep their velocity in check. These students apparently didn't.

They were on their way to an amusement park, dodging in and out of traffic, driving recklessly. Several of the passengers had neglected to attach their seatbelts. One of the cars lost control and rolled off the freeway. Five young people died.

Statistics are a good place to start, since they give us a picture of what's happening. We've included a few sobering facts below from NHTSA. We tried to pare down this list, but they all seemed so important that we've included them all.

• Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for American teenagers.
  
  
• In 2001, 5,341 teens were killed in passenger vehicles involved in motor vehicle crashes. Two thirds of those killed were not buckled up.
  
  
• When driver fatality rates are calculated on the basis of estimated annual travel, teen drivers (16 to 19 years old) have a fatality rate that is about four times higher than the fatality rate among drivers 25 through 69 years old.
  
  
• In 2001, 3,608 drivers 15 to 20 years old were killed in motor vehicle crashes, and an additional 337,000 were injured.
  
  
• Young drivers (16-20) were involved in 7,598 fatal crashes in 2001.
  
  
• In the last decade, over 68,000 teens have died in car crashes.
  
  
• Sixty-five percent of teen passenger deaths occur when another teenager is driving.
  
  
• In 2001, 26% of fatally injured teen drivers (16-20 years old) had high blood alcohol concentrations (0.08 percent or more), even though all were under the minimum legal drinking age and are not legally permitted to purchase alcohol.
  
  
• Two out of three teenagers killed in motor vehicle crashes are males.

As automotive journalists, we at Edmunds.com tend to be a little more practiced on the road than the average driver. Not only is driving cars our job but we're required to go to high-performance driving school every year "for insurance purposes." So take it from us when we say we know a thing or two about how to avoid a car accident. We're not talking about obvious tips your mom told you, like, "Look both ways before you enter an intersection" or "Don't tailgate." Rather, tips we've picked up in the field, interacting with L.A. drivers in particular, driving cross-country, and testing cars on the track.

1. Avoid the "fast lane." By using the center or right lane on multilane roads, you have more "escape routes" should a problem suddenly arise that requires you to quickly change lanes or pull onto the shoulder. Most highway accidents occur in the left lane. Furthermore, you are more conspicuous to highway patrol if you are in the "fast lane."

2. Keep your eyes scanning the area ahead. Don't just eyeball the car in front of you but watch the traffic in front of that car as well. This increases your chance of seeing a problem while still having enough time to react to it, and decreases your chance of rear-ending the vehicle in front of you should they make a sudden stop.

3. Beware of blind spots. Yes, adjust your side mirrors and rearview mirror to provide you with one near seamless panoramic scene of the view behind you, but don't rely solely on them. Actually turn to look directly into the lanes beside you to avoid missing something left undetected by your mirrors. Also consider the blind spots for other drivers around you, especially truckers, and try to minimize the amount of time you spend in them.

4. Drive with your hands in the 9 and 3 o'clock position. Instead of the lazy, typical way people drive with one hand at 12 o'clock or both hands resting at the bottom of the steering wheel, this recommended position facilitates maximum vehicle control when you're forced into quick maneuvering to avoid a potential car accident.

5. Get racecar driver control of the wheel. Another trick to maintain control of the wheel is to move your seat close enough to the steering wheel so that your wrist can rest on the top of the wheel with your arm outstretched and your back against the seat. This not only ensures your arms won't easily fatigue but they'll be in the optimum position for some last-minute evasive maneuvers.

6. Judge a driver by his/her car's condition. If a car's condition indicates an inattentive owner because of body damage or dirty windows, it could easily suggest an inattentive driver, too. Also, drifting in the lane often identifies a tired, drunk or cell phone-preoccupied driver — so you should get away from that person.

7. Know your car's limits. After getting behind the wheel of everything from minivans to exotic sport cars, our editors know the performance limits of the cars they drive. Pay attention to how your particular vehicle reacts in certain situations — if the vehicle leans a lot when you're rounding corners, this means that wrenching the wheel at high speeds to avoid an accident will be a scary proposition. It's also key to be familiar with the limits of your car's brakes and tires. How long does it take to stop when you apply maximum pressure? How much grip do your tires have? If you replaced your car's stock tires with a cheap set, chances are you've reduced its braking and handling capability.

8. Keep your car in good shape. At Edmunds, we stick to the manufacturer's recommended maintenance schedule for our long-term cars. This ensures that they'll accelerate, stop and steer when we need them to. Reconsider the wisdom of "getting another 1,000 miles out of old tires" — if you encounter an unexpectedly slick road, you may find yourself rubbing up against the guard rail.

9. The nighttime is not the right time. Some people like to travel at night to avoid traffic, but with it comes certain hazards. In addition to your own increased fatigue and decreased field of vision, you need to be aware of joyriding teens and drivers who may be tired or drunk. Drive extra defensively around the witching hour, after midnight when some people are leaving bars, parties or sports arenas. And for goodness' sake, don't drive down a dark road with burned-out headlights or taillights.

10. Learn how to drive a racecar. It may sound like a frivolous expense, but going to a high-performance driving school is one of the best ways to improve your skill as a driver. Here you'll learn what it feels like to drive a car "at the limits" and have an opportunity to practice accident avoidance maneuvers and skid recovery in a safe, controlled environment. Understanding how to make your car do what you want it to do in emergency situations could save your life.

None of these are surefire ways to prevent a car accident. You can only control what you do behind the wheel, not what your fellow drivers do. But take responsibility when you drive and focus on the task at hand. It's not a time to return phone calls or shave or log onto your e-mail. Take it from our editors: Driving isn't a mindless activity, it's an exercise in self-restraint, self-defense and self-preservation.