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New Teen Driving Act Proposed to Help Save Lives
Filed under: In The News, Teen Culture, Health & Safety: Teens
More than 4,000 teenagers die in car crashes in the United States each year. Credit: Getty Images
Motor vehicle crashes are the number one killer of teens in the United States, with an average of 11 teens dying in car crashes each day – more than 4,000 a year -- according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.
To help stem the tide of teen deaths, a federal bill has been proposed to mandate state-enforced graduated driver licensing (GDL) laws, which would apply restrictions to novice drivers under the age of 21. Currently awaiting a congressional vote, the Safe Teen and Novice Driver Uniform Protection (STANDUP) Act establishes minimum licensing and driving requirements which states would have to comply with.
The STANDUP Act would make 16 the minimum age for obtaining a learner's permit and calls for a graduated, three-stage licensing process with a mandatory six month learner's permit period and a six month intermediate stage before an unrestricted driver's license can be granted at age 18.
Teens also are restricted from driving at night during the first two stages, and limited to having only one non-family member under the age of 21 in the car unless a licensed driver older than 21 is present. The act also forbids teens from texting and talking on the cell phone until they are issued a full, unrestricted license at age 18.
Supporters of the STANDUP Act say GDL laws help decrease accidents and fatalities involving teens, citing data from some of the many states where they have been instituted, including California -- where the number of passenger deaths and injuries resulting from crashes involving 16-year-old drivers declined by 40 percent in the three years following the introduction of the law, according to the Automobile Club of Southern California.
Among these supporters are Robert and Eilene Okerblom, who lost their 19-year-old son Eric in 2009, when he was hit from behind by a distracted teenage driver while riding his bicycle in Santa Maria, Calif. The Okerbloms tell ParentDish that subpoenaed cell phone records revealed that the driver, a former high school classmate of Eric's, had been texting while she was driving. She pled guilty to misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter and received three years of probation and 100 hours of community service, including speaking to teens about the dangers of driver inattention.
Dedicated to ensuring that no other parent experiences such a tragic loss, the Okerbloms are working to raise awareness about the STANDUP Act, joining Allstate Insurance Company in its "Save 11" campaign, which calls on parents and teens to contact their representatives in Congress to encourage passage of the act.
"The average teen (girl) texts 80 times a day, and a 16-year-old is 10 times more at risk for having an accident when distracted," Robert Okerblom tells ParentDish. "We have the data to know what saves lives and the obligation to act on what we know, and we feel strongly about passing any legislation that prevents any needless injury or death."
However, some say graduated driver licensing laws are ageist, unfairly targeting teen drivers.
Alex Koroknay-Palicz, executive director of the National Youth Rights Association (NYRA), a youth-led nonprofit organization that defends the civil rights of young people in the United States, leads NYRA's fight against the STANDUP Act. Koroknay-Palicz tells ParentDish there hasn't been proper study of the effectiveness of GDL laws, citing a 2006 study that reported a decrease in California motor vehicle fatality rates for 16- and 17-year-olds, but an offsetting increase in 18- and 19-year-old drivers.
"This study demonstrates that graduated driving laws don't teach teens to drive safer, they just restrict opportunities to drive," Koroknay-Palicz says. "The more restrictions we place on young drivers, the more people will wait until 18 to get their license, which means they'll have less practice and no hours driving with a parent, which puts lots more untrained drivers on roads."
Koroknay-Palicz says the problem with the STANDUP Act is that it would, in essence, raise the driving age across the country. Instead, he suggests a policy that targets all new drivers regardless of age.
Bill Vainisi, General Counsel at Allstate Insurance Company, counters Koroknay-Palicz's comments, citing scientific evidence that critical regions of the brain involved in decision making are not fully developed in teens. Vainisi tells ParentDish graduated driving laws are not about singling out teens, but rather just a matter of trying to avoid those situations where statistics show they are likely to have accidents.
"If we have on average 11 kids dying per day, why not get them out of that situation and save a few of them," Vainisi says.
ParentDish contacted the American Civil Liberties Union regarding the STANDUP Act, but was informed in an e-mail from spokesperson Pamela Bradshaw that its Washington legislative office is not working on this particular act.
For more information on distracted driving, visit the Impact Teen Drivers and National Safety Council websites.
Related: Tired Teen Drivers Lead to Tragedy on the Road
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ReaderComments (Page 1 of 1)
5-31-2010 @ 12:41PM
Erik Wood said...I decided to do something about teen distracted driving after my three year old daughter was nearly run down right in front of me last fall by a texting driver. That incident changed me but I don’t hate texting. The way I see it, that would be like hating nightfall – 72% of teens text every single day - some over 3000 times a month. The texting drivers I spoke with, including teens and truckers, all said that laws and Big Brother type software devices that "lock down" their phones would not deter them at all. They feel their civil liberties slipping away. So I built a tool called OTTER for the individual to help manage their texting on their terms.
OTTER is a comprehensive text management system for the home, office and certainly, the highway. It has GPS based Parental Control Feature for teen drivers, a GPS Mode for adults who choose to use it and an Auto reply with unlimited customized responses. We are getting 4.5 to 5 star rating from the tech community and great response from teen groups and safety organizations. We have heard of teens and business people alike using OTTER to schedule their own "texting blackout periods" so they can get some focused work done without feeling disconnected from their social network. If a someone uses OTTER like this, then we think they will see the benefit of OTTER's road safety features. We are not going to stop until change hits our roads and not just our laws.
Best,
Erik Wood, owner
OTTER LLC
www.OTTERapp.com
youtube.com/watch?v=f_yS0V21CFg
Reply
5-31-2010 @ 2:32PM
CLM said...Um, how is it a civil liberty or a right to not look at the road when you are driving? You have to be licensed to drive, that makes it a privilege not a liberty or a right. Privileges can be revoked. That's why there are rules of the road. If you don't follow them, you lose your license. Endangering the lives of other people is pretty much considered a no-no. If you want to text, don't drive. The rights of other people to not be dead thanks to you vastly outweighs your perceived right to endanger other people on the road.
5-31-2010 @ 1:59PM
renee said...In 2006 there were over 3,500 deaths from unintentional drownings not including boat related incidents. We should enact legislation to prevent every one of these incidents. (These were predominently caused by bathtubs, swimming pools, toilets, etc.) The point is that both of my sons (now 26 yo.) needed their cars to go to work as teenagers. They learned responsibility and how to handle money. I look forward to my daughter driving. I feel for every family that loses someone in an accident. However, knee jerk legislation is not the answer. The texting and talking on a phone is already prohibitted in D.C....for everyone, and that makes good sense.
Reply
5-31-2010 @ 4:25PM
SKL said...I don't mind a few logical restrictions, but I don't like the idea of raising the age at which a teen can get a license and drive alone. Many teens need transportation for purposes that help them grow up. In my case, I was in college at 16. I lived in the boonies where there was no public transportation. While some 16-17yo's are immature brats, many are on the right path toward growing up, and making them wait to include independent driving among their life skills is foolish.
I would not mind a law against texting while driving. I think it would be freeing for many people, who feel they have to answer every email on their Crackberry as they drive down the road. However, I don't feel the same about cell phones. You can still see where you are going and what's coming at you while you talk. And again, not every teen uses the cell phone excessively.
Reply
5-31-2010 @ 4:41PM
Erik Wood said...CLM: From a philosophical perspective I am completely in agreement with you. That said, if you read daily about the legislative debates raging across our country on texting and driving legislation you would realize that civil liberties debates are clouding what I think is a simple public safety issue. What democrat father doesn't want his teen driver to be 23 times safer behind the wheel? What republican mother would not want to prevent their loved one from having their eyes off the road for football fields at a time? Its simple to see that this is not a partisan issue - however text & drive legislation is being held up in debate and is certainly not passing easily through state legislatures. Only half our states have any kind of ban on texting and driving.
Unfortunately, many of the technological responses so far are exacerbating the civil liberties issue by approaching the text & drive issue with an expensive "shackle" by telling this young texting user group that they need to be "locked out" of this activity. How do you think many users (not only teens) are responding to that approach? By pushing back! I showed a group of teens some of these lock down cell phone systems that have recurring fees and within 30 seconds they claimed "they could get around that, easy". When I asked how, they told me if their phone was "locked down", they would just text and drive with their friends phone and that they did this all the time anyway when their battery ran low.
After the incident with my daughter, Eve, last fall I was convinced that laws and education needed to be complimented by a tool and NOT a shackle. My goal was to build OTTER so that it could be used at home, in the office or, most importantly, on the highway. I believe strongly like I indicated in my first posting, that if a teen or an adult uses OTTER's features in other parts of their texting lives, then they will be more likely to to use the highway safety features that OTTER provides as well. I can tell you that I have had OTTER's GPS Mode enabled on my phone for 2 months now and I have not been tempted by that buzz or chime. Also, my phone ringer is silenced when my car moves faster than 10mph unless my Bluetooth is active which stops me from fumbling for a ringing phone. OTTER has allowed me to choose to be a safer driver. Once again, I agree with your fundamental argument - but I see an urgency to this situation. It is completely unacceptable to me to debate this issue without offering this growing user group a bona fide tool. If we wait for the cell phone companies to get sued and tougher laws to be formed it could be years before we realize tangible change on our highways. At a rate of 6,000 accidents a year, many fatalities and some of our youngest drivers facing manslaughter charges for being addicted to the nicotine of the cell phone business - something else needs to happen now - today... An OTTER user is 23 times safer on the road...that is tangible, that is now...
Best,
Erik Wood, owner
OTTER LLC
www.OTTERapp.com
youtube.com/watch?v=f_yS0V21CFg
Reply
5-31-2010 @ 5:33PM
andrew evans said...ok so why dotn someone figure out how to teach or teens to drive before we put them into a "killing machine". I have thought about this since teaching my own daughter to drive there needs to be some kind of simulator that schools have that teaches them just as if they were in a car. With technology today there is no reason this could not be invented. Then they would know how to handle the car before they evn get behind the wheel for real. Drivers ed left schools because of the high insurance rates well this would solve that problem too.
Reply
6-02-2010 @ 8:57PM
Kristen said...I agree with this article. They also should do something like this for elderly drivers who have no business being on the road. After a certain age they should take your license.
Reply
6-02-2010 @ 4:30PM
Karen said...I favor a system of graduated license.
At 15 you can get a permit and drive with a parent in the car.
At 16 you can get a daylight only drivers license - no passengers other than family. If you drive successfully for 6 months with no infractions, at 16 years and 6 months you can drive day and night - still no passengers (other than family). If you do not get a violation then at 17 you are allowed to drive during the day with 1 passenger (other than family) but none at night. No violations for 6 months and then you can drive with multiple passengers during the day and one passenger at night. Go six months and you have a full drivers license. If you get a moving violation at any time, you have to restart that 6 month period and go six months without a violation to move on to the next stage. A person only gets a full license at 18 if they have no moving violations for two years. This allows those that need transportation to get to work and school but it keeps other kids (and other distractions) out of the car.
Also, rather than outlaw texting while driving all accidents involving distracted driving - whether it is texting, talking, eating a hamburger, applying make-up - ANYTHING distracting should have severe penalties. None of those things are crimes unless it causes an accident. Do not punish things that aren't a problem until they are done improperly.
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