LOS ANGELES ( APBnews.com) -- A law that forbids rookie teenage drivers from carrying young passengers may have prevented hundreds of deaths and injuries in just one year, according to a new study.
Two years ago, California became one of a growing number of states to put extra restrictions on teenage drivers. In 1999, the death and injury rate for teenage car passengers fell by 21 percent, the study found. Other accident rates remained steady.
The study, by the Automobile Club of Southern California, confirms that states need to limit the rights of teenage drivers, a safety expert said.
"When a teenager dies in a motor vehicle accident in this country, two-thirds of the time another teen is at the wheel," said Julie Rochman, a spokeswoman for the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.
Night curfew
The California law states that 16-year-old drivers cannot carry passengers younger than 20 during the first six months they have a license. There is an exception if a licensed driver older than 25 is also in the car.
The law also sets a curfew of midnight to 5 a.m. for the first year that a teenager has a license. Exceptions are allowed in some cases.
The report, released Friday, studied state accident statistics and found the number of teenage passengers killed and injured during the first 11 months of the year fell from 2,045 in 1998 to 1,608 in 1999.
The law technically went into effect in July 1998, but provisional licenses with the passenger restrictions were not issued until January 1999.
Serious crashes down 20 percent
Meanwhile, the number of fatal and injury crashes caused by 16-year-old drivers fell by 20 percent from 1998 to 1999, from 3,817 to 3,066.
In contrast, the number of crashes caused by 18-year-old drivers rose by 6 percent from 5,871 to 6,212.
"The law had the intended effect of reducing deaths and injuries," said senior researcher Steve Bloch of the Auto Club. "Since we were the first state in the country to have a meaningful restriction on teen passengers, that was particularly gratifying and noteworthy."
Distracted youths
He said the goal of the law was to eliminate distractions for younger drivers.
"There's a good amount of research that demonstrates that kids tend to like to drive around their friends, and they have less of a sense of the risk of being distracted," he said.
Other states that limit the number of passengers that new drivers may carry include Delaware, Georgia, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, New Mexico, Oregon, Tennessee and Vermont, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. Washington D.C. also has a passenger restriction.
New Jersey, Wyoming, Wisconsin and Washington have laws that will take effect in 2001.
"We're trying to get at the recreational, aimless driving in a car packed full of teenagers. That is particularly risky," said Rochman of the Insurance Institute.
'Graduated' responsibility
She said the passenger restrictions are part of "graduated driver's licensing" systems that ease young drivers into the responsibilities of the road.
In California, for instance, there are three levels for rookie drivers -- a learning stage, an intermediate stage when the curfew and passenger restrictions are imposed, and the full stage when drivers have all their rights.
Thirty-one states and Washington D.C. have graduated licensing systems with three levels, according to the Auto Club.
By Randy Dotinga, an APBnews.com West Coast correspondent.