Putting Limits on Teen Drivers

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Some parents are ambivalent about the law and are not convinced that the restrictions should apply to their children. Becky Jeffries of Las Vegas, whose daughter Kristilyn, 17, had three fender benders in the first year she was licensed, doubts that enforcing the 10 p.m. curfew will keep her daughter any safer. "She's not going to get any better by being held back. She might as well be in control of her own destiny," Becky says.

Donna Botti and her daughter Angela, 16, share those sentiments. On a recent Saturday evening as Angela was getting ready for a friend's sweet-16 party at a downtown Vegas club, she belatedly noticed the phrase "Parent Drop-off and Pickup Preferred" on her invitation. "How stupid is that? I have my own car," she scoffed. Although the festivities were supposed to end at 10 p.m., Angela had no intention of racing home in her shiny '05 Hyundai Tucson to make curfew. In fact, she and her parents said they were unaware that nighttime restrictions for teens existed until being interviewed for this story. Donna's sunny expression momentarily turned pained when she was asked whether she would allow Angela, who was chauffeuring two pals that evening, to ignore the law: "I don't want to feel like an uncaring mother, but truthfully, I'm not worried about her."

That kind of statement makes Susan Larimer cringe. "People would like to believe Sean's crash was an isolated incident," she says. "But the second your kid drives away under his or her own power, you have no idea what can happen. If this nightmare can happen to our family, it can happen to anyone."