NEWS for North Dakotans
Agriculture Communication, North Dakota State
University
7 Morrill Hall, Fargo, ND 58105-5665
April 16, 1998
Another group of newly licensed teenage drivers will be taking to the roads in the coming months. While this shift toward adulthood is exciting for the teenagers and their parents alike, it also can be tragic—even deadly—due to an indisputable fact backed up by some grim statistics: teenagers have not mastered the driving skills they need to be safe drivers.
What can parents do? One solution is to ease licensed teenagers into the responsibilities and privileges associated with driving, says a North Dakota State University researcher. Examples would include initially setting curfews to eliminate driving after dark and not allowing teenagers to drive with their peers unless an adult is in the car. Also, research shows that larger cars are safer for occupants involved in crashes.
"Parents shouldn't treat new licensees like they're seasoned drivers," says Laura DeHaan, an assistant professor in NDSU's child development and family science department. She adds, "It appears that your first year of driving will be your worst."
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety says the per-mile risk of being involved in a crash is greatest for 16- and 17-year-old drivers—with the crash rate per mile driven being nearly three times greater for 16-year-olds than it is for 18- and 19-year-olds. Basing its conclusion on 1996 data, the American Automobile Association says 16- and 17-year-old drivers are seven times more likely to be involved in crashes than the general public. Also, highway crashes are the number-one killer of teenagers.
In 1993, 82 percent of the 16-year-old drivers who were involved in fatal crashes while they were working made at least one driving error that led to the accident, and 37 percent of all the 16-year-olds involved in fatal crashes were speeding, says the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
"If teens drive, that's the number-one reason why they're killed on the job, and with 16- and 17-year-olds, it's the number-one reason they're killed—period," stresses DeHaan. Yet, she says federal lawmakers are now considering legislation that weakens the prohibition on occupational driving for 16- and 17-year olds.
According to the Washington, D.C.,-based National Consumers League, the bill, titled "Drive for Teen Employment Act," would allow minors to drive up to one-third of their work day and up to 20 percent of the work week. Current law limits driving by minors younger than age 18 to only 5 percent of their work week.
"This proposal seems questionable, when you consider that statistics show us how poor most teenage drivers really are," says DeHaan.
Current law prohibits occupational driving for minors under age 18, except on an "occasional and incidental" basis. The U.S. Department of labor, the enforcer of this law, interprets it to mean that occasional and incidental driving should not exceed one hour in a 20-hour work week or two hours in a 40-hour work week.
Meanwhile, some states have implemented laws based on the concept of graduated licensing, DeHaan says. Night driving curfews for teenagers and restrictions on the number of underage passengers who may ride with an unsupervised teenage driver are examples.
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Source: Laura DeHaan (701) 231-8270
Editor: Dean Hulse (701) 231-6136