Giving teens a brake: stricter laws for teenage drivers have helped prevent injuries and save lives.

Colorado--A 17-year-old girl is charged with careless driving after crashing into a car pulled over with a flat tire and severely injuring the two teenage boys who were changing it. The boys, both on the high school wrestling team, lose their legs. Utah--A 19-year-old driver's car veers off the road and hits a tree. The teen is pronounced dead at the hospital.

Florida--A teenage driver runs over and kills a fifth grader walking to school.

Missouri A teen passenger is severely injured in a crash when the teen driver loses control of the car, swerves over the center line and hits another car head on.

Virginia--A teen driver is headed to court after killing one of his passengers in a crash resulting from driving at more than 100 mph.

South Carolina--Two toddlers and a 12-year-old are critically injured after riding in a SUV that the 15-year-old driver crashed into a tree.

Crashes like these are common on highways and streets across the country. Motor vehicle wrecks claim the lives of more teens than does any other accident or illness, more than cancer and more than drowning. This plague affecting teens is nothing new--it's been a problem for years. But stricter laws covering drivers in this age group have allowed for progress in cutting back the number of teen deaths and injuries.

Beginning in the mid-1990s state legislatures began passing driver's licensing laws aimed at teens. Under these laws young people acquire their licenses through a gradual process. The laws vary greatly. According to AAA, 43 states and the District of Columbia have three-stage graduated driver's licensing laws for teens. The automobile association says the other seven states lack either an intermediate licensing stage or a mandatory learner's permit.

States have concentrated on strengthening licensing procedures for teen drivers in the past few years, restricting passengers, nighttime driving and cell phone use. In addition, lawmakers have lengthened the minimum period to hold a learner's permit and extended the entire graduated driver's licensing program.

A STEP FURTHER

Illinois has taken teen licensing a step further. Although the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has rated the Illinois graduated driver's licensing law as "good," it wasn't good enough for Jesse White, the Illinois secretary of state. Inspired by a series of articles by the Chicago Tribune focusing on the toll of deadly teen crashes, White formed the Illinois Teen Driver Safety Task Force. Made up of state legislators, judges, traffic safety advocates, law enforcement and educators, the group began meeting last summer and came up with recommendations to improve teen driver safety that were turned into legislation this session.

In March, the Senate Transportation Committee approved the bill, which increases the time teens must hold learner permits, adds nighttime driving restrictions, requires at least six hours of actual street driving in driver's education and makes teens wait a little longer before giving rides to their friends. Teenagers must also drive citation-free for 15 months before they can receive a full license.

If the legislation passes, Illinois will have one of the toughest teen driver law in the country. And that's exactly what Senator John Cullerton wants to happen. Cullerton, a member of the task force and the Senate sponsor for the legislation says the recommendations from the task force are essential to saving teen lives and preventing injuries. "The goal of the task force was to reduce the number of Illinois teens dying each year on our state highways," he says. "This legislation will help us reach that goal."

New Jersey lawmakers approved a new law this session, creating a special commission charged with studying teen driver safety. The commission will conduct research about the effectiveness of drivers' education and training programs geared toward teens, and study the leading factors contributing to teen crashes--distraction, aggressive driving and speed. Senator Ellen Karcher, the bill's sponsor, hopes that the special commission will, "hit the ground running, and make needed recommendations to the Legislature, law enforcement community, parents, and everyone concerned with safety on our roadways to protect our kids from tragic auto accidents."

Senator Karcher knows what it's like to worry about the safety of a child. "As a parent of a teen driver, I know personally how hard it was to hand over the keys to my son. Parents will always worry about the safety of our kids. Legislators need to take a comprehensive approach to examining teen driver safety, and begin pushing for safer standards and greater education for our young drivers."

Not everyone agrees. In late March, the Arkansas House rejected teen driving legislation by a vote of 27-63. It would have added nighttime driving restrictions and limited the number of teen passengers allowed in the car of a teenage driver. Representative Billy Gaskill says it's unfair to target teens this way and asked his colleagues to "leave these kids alone." Other legislators question the wisdom in having more cars on the road--a potential issue arising from limiting teens ability to carpool.

POSITIVE RESULTS

Research shows conclusively that graduated driver's licensing laws decrease fatality and injury rates for teens ages 15-19. In a recent study by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, states with the most comprehensive laws show tremendous success in reducing teen fatalities and injuries. States with the most restrictions on teen drivers have had the greatest drop in fatalities and injuries for young drivers. The AAA Foundation commissioned the study from Johns Hopkins and says it should be a wake-up call for parents and legislators.

"States with five of seven common components of graduated driver licensing saw 40 percent reductions in injury crashes and 38 percent average drops in fatal crash involvement for 16-year olds," says Justin McNaull, state relations director for AAA. "States with fewer components had lesser results. Put bluntly, when states enact comprehensive graduated driver licensing, fewer teens die on our roads and we're all safer."

The study looked for teen driving regulations that require:

* A minimum age of 16 years for receiving a learner's permit.

* At least six months on the learner's permit before qualifying for a license that allows unsupervised driving.

* At least 30 hours of supervised practice during the learner's stage.

* An intermediate stage of licensing with a minimum entry age of 16 and a half years.

* Nighttime driving restrictions for intermediate license holders starting no later than 10 p.m.

* A restriction of no more than one passenger for intermediate license holders.

* A minimum age of 17 for full, unrestricted licensure.

"The research on teen licensure is clear: graduated driver licensing reduces crashes, injuries, and deaths for teens and everyone else who travels on our roads," says McNaull of AAA. "For legislators, a vote to improve teen licensure is a vote that will save lives."

THE IDEA OF GRADUATED LICENSES

The idea of a graduated driver's license was born when a North Carolina study in the early 1970s found that young drivers, especially at night, were statistically more likely to be involved in fatal crashes.

From that research, graduated licenses were recommended in a model system developed by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in 1977. Although California and Maryland adopted a few of the model's concepts into their driver's licensing scheme, the first successful graduated licensing program was started in 1987 in New Zealand.

A graduated driver's license involves three stages in licensing teenage drivers. The first stage, the "learner stage" requires teenage drivers to be accompanied and supervised by an adult. The "intermediate stage," sometimes known as a "provisional" stage, allows unsupervised driving, subject to certain restrictions such the number of passengers or the time of day. The final stage is full licensure when all restrictions and provisions are lifted for the teen driver.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has a rating system for states with graduated licensing laws. The institute assigns points to various components of the GDL law. The highest rating, "good," would earn six or more points. Regardless of the point totals, no state is given a rating above "marginal" if it grants an intermediate license to someone under 16 years of age or if it allows unrestricted driving before age 16 and a half.

--Anne Telgen, NCSL 

Melissa Savage covers teen driving issues for NCSL.