Graduated drivers licensing
programs save lives

By Insure.com

Motor vehicle crashes continue to be the leading cause of death among teenagers. In the United States, 16-year old drivers have almost 10 times the crash rate of drivers between the ages of 30 to 59, and almost 3 times the risk of older teens, according to new information from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS). Teen drivers are more likely to speed, tailgate, and engage in other dangerous behaviors, especially when the other passengers in the vehicles are also teens. In addition, teens are less likely to recognize or respond to weather or road condition hazards due to inexperience.

Since 1994 in North Ameica, 58 jurisdictions-including 47 states, the District of Columbia and nine Canadian provinces- have enacted one or more provisions of a graduated driver's licensing program in an effort to lower the fatality rate among younger drivers. While statistics are still incomplete for all programs, initial results appear to indicate any jurisdiction which adopts three or more provisions of a graduated licensing program sees a signofocant reduction in fatalities among teen drivers, states IIHS.

However, fatal and injury crash data from California's Statewide Integrated Traffic Records System reported that in the first three years of the new graduated license program implemented in the state in 1998, the average number of teenage passengers carried by 16-year-old drivers decreased by approximately 25%. Even without considering the beneficial effect of a decrease in the crash rate, the decrease in the number of teenage passengers in actual crashes resulted in an estimated saving of eight lives and the prevention of 684 injuries over a three-year period, California reported.

Nighttime restrictions help young drivers adjust to driving at night, since a reported 41 percent of motor vehicle crashes involving teenagers occur between 9 PM and 6 AM. Early statistics show that in North Carolina, graduated driver's licensing reduced crashes among 16 year olds by 47 percent during the night and 22 percent during the day. In Michigan, the state reported a 53 percent reduction in crashes involving teenage drivers with restricted nighttime hours and a 25 percent decline overall in crashes involving teenage drivers. Iowa reported a 14 to 22 percent reduction in crashes for 16 year-old using a similar program.

A graduated licensing program phases in driving experience for younger drivers, allowing beginners to gain experience under lower risk conditions first, then gradually increasing to more complex driving situations over a period of time. In most states, the graduated period continues from a minimum age of 16, in most cases, to a full driver's license by the time the teens reach 17 years of age, phasing in over a period of at least six months, according to IIHS.

A graduated system provides for an initial learning period of supervised driving, followed by an intermediate period of unsupervised driving under less risky situations, and then to a full-privilege license when the first two stages have been completed successfully, IIHS states.

But not all state programs are the same, as the legislative process limits lawmakers in changing a system that may have been in place for decades, IIHS said. Arizona, Hawaii, Montana, and Wyoming are among the states with a GDL program that IIHS rates as poor, as they do not include all the provisions IIHS believes help prevent fatalities in younger drivers.

For example, Hawaii imposes a three-month mandatory learning period for beginning drivers, with the minimum age at 15 1/2 years old. Inexperienced drivers stay in the learner's permit stage for three months, then receive their full license, which can mean fully licensed drivers in the state may be younger than 16, IIHS reports.