NATIONAL SAFETY BOARD BACKS LIMITS ON NOVICE DRIVERS.

The National Transportation Safety Board has thrown its weight behind new state-imposed limits on young, novice drivers, adding goals to those long sought by Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety and its supporters in the insurance industry and among consumer groups.

At a Nov. 6 symposium in Chatham, MA, Acting NTSB Director Carol J. Carmody announced two new board recommendations:

* All states should restrict young, novice drivers with provisional or intermediate licenses from carrying more than one passenger under the age of 20 unless accompanied by a supervising adult at least 21 years old. The restriction would last until the driver received an unrestricted license or for six months, whichever is longer.

* All states should require that in learner's permit stage, the adult supervising driver be at least 21.

Carmody said each of the board's members - currently four, but ordinarily five - would undertake to lead advocacy efforts in 10 states, targeting the media, speaking at public events and meeting with state officials, legislators, advocacy groups and coalitions.

In 1993, the board recommended that states provide for provisional licensing systems for young drivers and prohibit them from driving at certain hours, particularly between midnight and 5 a.m.

The board implicitly backed a graduated licensing system, starting with a learner's permit and progressing through a provisional or intermediate license to an unrestricted license.

But even those states enacting such laws have adopted a number of variations, Carmody said, and the number of young people killed in crashes has not changed very much in the last five years.

In 2000, she said, those 20 and younger made up 6.8 percent of the driving population but were involved in 14 percent of fatal crashes.

The National Safety Council symposium was sponsored by General Motors Corp., Nationwide Insurance and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.