In late
August, Barbara Stroup of Lawrenceville sold her
powerful 1997 Chevy Camaro Z28.
The buyer was 16-year-old Jarrod Norman, a student at
Lassiter High School in Cobb County. He was accompanied
by his father, who said that his son could handle the
car -- that he was responsible and hardworking.
In the few minutes it took to make the sale, Stroup
came to a similar judgment about the teenager: "He
was all-American and sweet as can be -- didn't miss a
'yes, ma'am,' " Stroup recalled. "He'd saved
his money, and his dad was going to match it. He was a
good boy."
Last weekend, Jarrod and his 16-year-old passenger,
John Bickelhaup, were killed in the Camaro. Police said
street racing was involved.
In the past six months, 16 metro Atlanta teenagers
have died in automobile crashes in which the driver was
16 years old. Just Wednesday, four young people were
seriously injured in a crash in Henry County. Police
think they were racing.
When high speed is combined with inexperience, it's
easy enough to ask: "What were these kids -- and
their parents -- thinking?"
But if parents can be faulted for not knowing what
intentions swim through a teenager's brain, they're not
alone.
Only recently have national researchers begun looking
at novice drivers and their behavior. And they have
found that parents ought to be more suspicious of their
own kids: 16-year-olds are the most dangerous drivers on
the road.
Does driver education help?
Among the findings issued in the past 18
months:
Between 1975 and 1996, the death rate among
16-year-old drivers nearly doubled.
Driver education courses don't result in lower
accident or death rates among young drivers, and, in
fact, may contribute to the problem by helping young
drivers get on the road sooner. Experts say the
statistics don't argue against driver education, but
make a case for more experience.
There's a direct connection between teenage driving
deaths and the number of teenage passengers in a car.
A study published this March by the Johns Hopkins
School of Public Health drew a statistical portrait of
the driver most likely to be involved in a fatal
accident: A 16-year-old driver hauling around three or
more of his friends.
He's seven times more likely to have a fatal accident
than a middle-aged driver.
Distraction is one factor. "The beginning driver
has so many things to think of that haven't become
automatic," said Susan P. Baker, professor of
health policy at Johns Hopkins.
But the "I dare you" factor -- the
risk-taking that builds when teenagers act in groups --
is another. "Young drivers with male passengers
drove at higher speeds and followed ... vehicles more
closely than those without passengers or with female
passengers," the study said.
More kids with cars?
The studies have particular resonance in metro
Atlanta.
Run a finger down the list of teen scandals and
tragedies of the last few months Ñ mailbox
bashing by teens in Cobb County, a keg party after which
a 16-year-old driver in Gwinnett died, the deaths of the
two Lassiter students.
Access to an automobile is the thread that connects
them all.
But some of the statistics still have researchers
puzzled.
The 1998 study noting the increasing death rate over
a 20-year period among 16-year-old drivers was conducted
by the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety.
The death rates for other age groups, including older
teens, declined over the same span. Allan Williams,
senior vice president of the institute, isn't sure why
16-year-old drivers alone are dying at a faster clip.
He presumes that 16-year-olds must have more access
to cars than ever before. And that might be linked to a
booming economy that makes wheels easier to afford.
"You see kids in my neighborhood, and it seems
like every one of them has a car," Williams said.
Perhaps the most controversial such report, issued in
1999, questioned the benefits of driver education
courses -- which are usually aimed at 15- and
16-year-olds.
The study, conducted by the Johns Hopkins School of
Public Health, was mostly based on reworked data
collected from 16,000 students in DeKalb County between
1978 and 1981.
High school-age drivers who enrolled in driver ed
courses did not have fewer violations, crashes or deaths
than those who did not.
Researchers concede that, in the first six months of
driving with a license, students who took driver ed
courses were engaged in fewer accidents. But that
advantage quickly disappeared.
And in the end, the courses may contribute to the
problem, the study suggested. "There is evidence
that ready availability of driver education courses may
stimulate young drivers to obtain their licenses at an
earlier age," it said.
Nationwide, about half of all high school students
take driver ed courses. Baker, the Johns Hopkins
professor, said the study doesn't mean that such courses
are useless. "It's an argument against putting all
our eggs in one basket," she said.
The significance of 16
In each of these studies, researchers emphasize that
16 is merely a number. Maturity and road experience are
the real factors.
In analyzing why driver ed didn't improve driving
records, researchers theorized that it "may be a
function of young drivers' inability or unwillingness to
make appropriate decisions." In other words,
scientists decided that teenagers might be acting like
teenagers.
That throws the burden back upon parents, to pass
judgment on their child's judgment.
"Parents have to take a careful, cold, almost
clinical look at their kids," said James MacIntyre,
an assistant professor of psychiatry at Albany, N.Y.,
Medical College. He just finished putting together a
handbook on the topic for the American Academy of Child
and Adolescent Psychiatry.
What a mother or father should be looking for is a
healthy bit of insecurity -- a chink in that feeling of
invulnerability that every teenager carries.
A young driver with car keys should know what he
doesn't know, MacIntyre said. "They're very naive
about that. And they don't like to be told that they
don't know something, especially by their parents."
One of the key measurements is whether a teenager has
his or her risk-taking impulse under control --
regardless of whether he or she is driving, he said.
Being caught at a keg party or bashing mailboxes would
be signs that the thrill-seeker rules.
Above all, look for a teenager's willingness to take
responsibility, MacIntyre said. "With some kids, if
something happens, it's never their fault. Are they
thinking of other people, or are they only thinking of
themselves?"