Lifemagician, thanks for the reply. I'm curious, every one of the five times you came upon this scenario what was your reply? Did you ultimately allow your children to go or no? And if you did what were your caveats, what did you have them do to help put your mind at ease?

As stated above i know there is an inherent risk in driving anywhere and that the further you drive the more of a risk there is, however I need you to speak to me from experience and not quote statistics, in facts statistics are the last things i want to hear. If i was interested in the probability of getting into a crash for my age group (which frankly I'm not) i would have looked it up already. There are ALWAYS going to be people making mistakes and getting into collisions on the road, it doesn't matter whether you are 18 or 48. Everyone takes the same risks sitting behind the wheel, all i'm trying to do is minimize the risk as much as i can, make an acceptable plan, and alleviate my parents fears, even if it's only by a little.

Also, i believe that the more one dwells on something bad happening the more likely it is to happen, if i spend all my time thinking about getting into a collision then there is that much more of a chance it'll happen because i'm too worried about it happening and end up taking my focus off the road. It should be, in my opinion, a matter of prevention and not intense anticipation, which are two totally seperate things.

Furthermore, i know my parents love me ma'am, i know they're looking out for me, but i also know that they trust me. I've never been a bad kid, i do what i say i'm going to do, keep my promises. They really never had a reason not to trust me and i don't intend to give them any. And i understand their trepidations, i cannot know what they're thinking but that doesn't mean i cannot understand what they are thinking.