Putting Limits on Teen Drivers

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Those findings--and aggressive lobbying by auto-safety advocates--have helped push 45 states to adopt some form of graduated driver licensing, or GDL, which lengthens the waiting period before teens can obtain a full "go anywhere, anytime" driver's license. Slowing down the process has slowed down the accident rate. Per-capita crashes have fallen 23% among 16-year-old drivers in California since its strict GDL law was enacted in 1998, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) reported in August. The state's late-night crashes were down 27%, and crashes with teen passengers were down 38%. Similar drops have occurred in other states. Despite those impressive results, however, legislators have balked at imposing additional measures that could make teen drivers even safer.

Studies suggest that nighttime driving is particularly dangerous for teens, and curfews are urged. "Most accidents involving teens occur before midnight," says Susan Ferguson, senior vice president of research for the IIHS. "So the smartest laws go into effect earlier." But last year nine states introduced measures to rein in teens' nighttime driving privileges, and only one--Nevada--passed such a law. "A lot of adults think, I used to drive at night with my friends, so what's the harm?" says Judith Lee Stone, president of the nonpartisan Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety in Washington. "It's hard to change people's thinking unless there's a crash involving someone they know. Then people get it immediately." This year six states--Arizona, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Ohio and Kentucky--have considered new or additional nighttime restrictions, but only Kentucky's bill passed, propelled, in part, by the death of the 17-year-old granddaughter of state representative Tom Burch of Louisville, who was the sponsor.

Nevada is one of the last states to join the decade-long movement to restrict teen drivers, but its law is now among the most comprehensive in the nation. It requires teen drivers to be off the road by 10 p.m., earlier than the midnight or 1 a.m. curfews in other states (six states still have no nighttime limits at all). Nevada also set a six-month waiting period between permit and licensing, mandates at least 50 hours of parent-supervised driving experience that must be tracked in a written log, and forbids newly licensed drivers to transport other youths for three months. "The more teens in the car, the greater the risk," says Ferguson. Goofy, adolescent yammering in the backseat isn't the only distraction posing a threat. Ferguson says the mere presence of peers can induce kids to take risks they otherwise wouldn't, often because they're trying to impress their passengers.

The changes are already producing positive results. In Las Vegas, collisions involving teen drivers were down 18%, to 1,155, for the first eight months of the year compared with the same period in 2005. In the Larimers' hometown of Henderson (pop. 250,000), there have been two fatalities, but only one teen has been ticketed for violating the driving curfew, and not one has been nabbed for illegally carting around friends. Police admit that they are more likely to call parents than write up a violation, believing that a more informal approach is as much a deterrent as sending the family through the court system.