• 03
  • November
    2011

Inexperience and immaturity often prove to be a lethal combination for teens, especially when they get behind the wheel. Car accidents are the leading cause of death among teens, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. In California alone, 593 people died in 2008 in accidents involving teen drivers, according to California's Department of Motor Vehicles.

To ease the transition and save lives, many states have turned to some form of graduated driver licensing. This multi-step approach leads drivers from a closely supervised permit stage to full privileges - after successfully meeting all state-mandated restrictions regarding supervised hours behind the wheel, night driving, cell phone use and passengers on board.

One of the strictest driving programs is found in California, which adopted graduated licensing in 1998 and strengthened its requirements in 2006. To achieve an unrestricted license, California teens must pass written and driving tests and a one-year provisional stage that bans late-night driving and passengers under age 20 without adult supervision. Avoiding suspensions and probation during the provisional stage allows teens to get a full license.

Now, however, examination of teen crash data is raising new questions on the effectiveness of this graduated approach, according to LATimes.com. The question is, are graduated licensing programs merely postponing accidents to the late-teen years? An examination of more than 131,000 fatal crashes involving teen drivers indicates that the answer is yes.

Does Graduated Licensing Shift High-Risk Behavior to Late Teen Drivers?

California's Department of Motor Vehicles Research and Development studied 21 years of fatal teen accident data - 1986 to 2007 - from all 50 states and the District of Columbia. During this period, some states used graduated licensing and others did not. After crunching the numbers, analysts revealed that states with the most restrictive licensing programs lowered the fatal crash rate among 16-year-old drivers by 26 percent as compared to states with unrestricted licensing. However, the restricted licensing states also showed a 12 percent jump in fatal crashes among 18-year-old drivers, compared with the unrestricted states.

Further analysis of the research data may lead states to alter programs and approaches to meet intended goals - saving lives on our roads and highways.

If you have been injured in an accident involving a teen driver, a reputable personal injury attorney can advise you of your rights and options.