TEEN DRIVING: Barne's plan seen as 1st step
New proposals: Experts say suggested restrictions are a good start but may not curb tragedies involving young drivers.
John McCosh - Staff
Sunday, January 7, 2001

Teenagers counting the months until they're 16 and eligible for a Georgia driver's license may look at new proposals to curb their anticipated freedom as Draconian.

National safety experts say proposals to raise the driving age to 17 in four metro Atlanta counties and restrict some privileges statewide are a good start to protect teens from fatal wrecks.

"Those are small steps in the right direction," said Allan Williams, chief scientist at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

But Williams and other experts warn the proposals stop dangerously short of ending the highway carnage.

Gov. Roy Barnes and Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor announced Friday they are pushing legislation aimed at giving young drivers more experience behind the wheel before gaining full driving privileges.

The proposals come in the wake of dozens of metro Atlanta traffic deaths last year involving teen drivers.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has reviewed some of the more publicized accidents involving 16- and 17-year-old drivers. Had a proposal to require an adult in the car with drivers younger than 17 been in effect, some of these wrecks may not have happened.

Month after month last year the horrific news hit.

Two crashes in north Fulton County involving 16-year-old drivers at the beginning and end of summer killed eight teens.

The proposed restrictions would at least have changed the age and number of passengers in the cars, making it less likely the drivers would have made a deadly mistake, experts say.

"Three teenage passengers in a car with a teenage driver, research shows, is tremendously high risk," said Williams. "As you add passengers the risk goes up to five times that of a teenager driving alone."

But other measures proposed by Barnes andTaylor are not as likely to make the highways safer for teens, safety experts say.

Robert Foss, research scientist with the University of North Carolina Highway Safety Research Center, said plans to increase the hours of driving prohibition for 16- and 17-year-olds miss the point. The proposal would prohibit 16- and 17-year-olds from driving between midnight to 6 a.m., an extension of the current ban between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m.

By far, Foss said, the majority of wrecks involving young teen drivers occur before midnight and very few occur between 5 a.m. and 6 a.m.

"In a sincere effort to prevent these tragedies, legislators are missing the boat on the hours of restriction," Foss said. "Better to take it back to 10 p.m. because most crashes (involving young teen drivers) happen between 9 p.m. and midnight."

Indeed, the newspaper's review of dozens of publicized traffic fatalities involving teen drivers last year shows that nearly all occurred between 6 a.m. and midnight -- a time period that would not be affected by the proposed reforms. Most occurred during school hours while the rest happened as teens were headed home in the late evening from activities such as bowling or a party.

In order to make the proposal politically palatable to rural legislators who oppose raising the driving age, the Barnes plan would allow 16-year-olds to drive outside metro Atlanta. Foss said other states also make driving laws more restrictive in urban areas than rural ones.

And, he said, it's a bad idea.

"They are probably not aware that (rural) roads are more dangerous, with higher speeds and more serious crashes," Foss said.

Barnes' initial plan to define the metro area as Cobb, DeKalb, Fulton and Gwinnett counties leaves fast-growing Atlanta suburbs with lots of young high-risk drivers. These teens aren't likely to be driving from farm to market, the practice rural legislators say they want to protect. Sixteen-year-old drivers in Cherokee and Forsyth counties who wouldn't have been affected by the proposed changes died in crashes last year.

Foss and Williams both say studies haven't been able to connect a reduction in teen driving fatalities with required driver training, a measure supported by Taylor and state Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-Marietta). The plan calls for drivers to get 40 hours of training or an affidavit from a parent or guardian that they've had the same amount of time behind the wheel with adult supervision.

"Testing has been looked at quite a bit," Foss said. "But the way people drive has very little to do with what they know. People drive 30 miles per hour over the speed limit and run stop signs and they know they're not supposed to do that."

The better plan, he said, is to make it difficult to move up the state's graduated license ladder if the young driver earns traffic tickets.

Like most states, Georgia has a three-tiered teen licensing system that includes a supervised learner's period, an intermediate license stage and a full-privilege driver's license.

Williams said he does see value in getting parents more involved with training and requiring an adult to ride with 16-year-old drivers.

"The real key is to put meaningful restrictions on high-risk driving," Williams said. "You've got to protect them when they're in that stage."

NEW RULES OF THE ROAD?
State proposals for teenage drivers include:
Raise driving age to 17 in four metro counties --- Fulton, DeKalb, Cobb and Gwinnett
Prohibit driving for 16-and 17- year-olds between midnight and 6 a.m.
Mandate driver training
Allow only one non-family passenger under age 21 for 16-year-old drivers if not accompanied by an adult; three underage passengers for 17-year-old drivers