Chairman of the Governors Highway Safety Association, Vernon F. Betkey Jr. has no option but to take notice of the study conducted by The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, which was released last month.
The institute analyzed driving laws for teenagers and their effectuality in curbing crashes.
In its report the IIHS reasons that states which implement tougher licensing laws for a graduate driver witness a decline in calamitous crashes and the accompanied insurance loss. IIHS rated the states based on their license systems and surprisingly the ones rated as good experienced 30% lesser fatality rates as compared to states with a poor rating.
IIHS’s report gives an account of the progress in teenage driving laws made by each of the states and provides a guideline for further progress.
This first of a kind research gives a measure of the GDL components that are efficacious which will provide state legislatures which are planning to make reforms in their GDL laws. This is indeed a commendable effort on IIHS’ part.
According to the IIHS rating none of the states in 1996 could have been rated as good. Today as many as 31 states including D.C. are rated as good, 12 as fair and 7 as marginal. The good news no states are rated as poor.
The GHSA says that almost 49 states as of today have some system of a 3 stage GDL. Most of the States have progressed to toughening their teenage driving laws through a variety of protagonist efforts of the community for safety and an extensive research which supports the effectualness of the GDL legislation.
IIHS identified chief GDL components that the states would have to implement in order to bring down the rate of teen crashes placing a strong emphasis on components such as passenger and nighttime restriction.
Chief GDL components are:
Minimum age for Learners permit should be 16.
Learner stage which lasts at least 6 months.
A minimum of 30 – 50 hours during the learner stage supervised and certified by the parents.
An intermediate stage till 18 years which includes:
A 9 p.m.-10 p.m. curfew on driving out at nighttime
No teen passenger or a maximum of one teenage passenger accompanying the driver
A ban on using any form of communication devices while driving
The study indicates a growing need of increasing the age for driving for teenagers nationwide. At present the minimum age for a learner’s permits is 15-15 ½ years. The state of New Jersey issues learners permit starting 16 years of age but do not issue an intermediate permit till 17 years of age, this is backed by previous IIHS research stating that the law saves teenage lives. Safety of the teenage drivers is of paramount importance, however economic and political issues pertaining to teenage licensing have to be incorporated into the policy discussion. GHSA supports the GDL laws and seeks the congress’ assistance to provide financial incentives in order to further the states to persist in improving GDL laws.
Please visit www.iihs.org to know more about the IIHS Teen Driving Analysis
State teen driving laws are available at: www.ghsa.org/html/stateinfo/laws/license_laws.html.
