'Trying to keep the kids alive'
Duluth father proposes legislature to combat teen driving deaths

By Laura Marshall
Staff Writer, Gwinnett Daily Post

When Brian Luders visited a crash site just across the Gwinnett County line
in North Fulton, he didn't add flowers or stuffed toys to the roadside
memorials commemorating the four teenagers who died.

Instead, the Duluth father of two adolescent sons bent down and gathered
shards of glass.

Luders, 43, plans to place the fragments from the fatal Sept. 1 accident in
plastic bags and attach them to letters addressed to every state senator
and representative this January when the Georgia legislature meets. His
message? Institute a graduated licensing system in the state.

"I'm working with State Rep. Brooks Coleman, and we are planning on
drafting legislation," said Luders, an accountant who works in
Lawrenceville.

His proposal would require teens with a driver's permit to put in a
specific number of driving hours under various conditions before obtaining
their license.

"I would like to see a driving log required with 50 hours of supervised
driving experience while they have their learner's permit," Luders said.
"The log would include the date; the type of driving - rural, suburban; and
highway conditions - dry, wet."

Signed verification by parents also would be required. Luders wants the
time on the road to include five hours in the rain, is thinking about
making five hours of interstate driving mandatory and wants 10 hours of
required nighttime driving logged.

"Teens, when they first get their licenses, their tendency is to drive a
lot at night," the father said, citing football games and dates. "It's one
of the hardest driving experiences."

He envisions the driving log as a spiral-bound, standard-issue book given
to the teens at the time they receive their permit. After the book is
completed and a young driver comes of age, Luders would like the log
submitted at the time the adolescents take their driver's tests.

"The second big thing I'd like to see is restrictions on passengers -
unrelated teenager passengers," Luders said.

During the first year a novice motorist is allowed to drive solo, the
limitations would mean zero teen passengers during the first three months,
one over the next set of three months, two after six months, and three
following a full year of licensed driving.

"With a graduated system, they earn the full privilege of driving, with an
emphasis on privilege. Driving is not a right," Luders said. "They would
earn their full privilege over time. As their experience grows, their
privileges grow. The earliest a teenager could have full driving privileges
in the state of Georgia would be 17."

Originally, he felt mandatory driver's education was part of the solution.
"But as I studied the issue more and more, it didn't have that big of an
impact," the parent said.

Likewise, Luders doesn't advocate raising the driving age. "Experience and
limitation of passengers will have more broad impact than simply raising
the age," he said. "Whether they get their license at 16 or 17, they still
have to go through the same learning curve."

Luders became interested in changing teen driving laws in the spring when
seven adolescents died during a rash of automobile crashes. Additionally,
his oldest son, Brandon, turned 16 in May.

"He got his learner's permit when he was 15, but he did not take his
license test until he was 16 years and three months," the father said. "We
didn't feel like he was ready yet."

Each time an automobile accident occurs and a young life ends, Luders
thinks about the roadside memorials, the schools which bring in counselors,
and he longs for something more.

"I wish they would bring the crash vehicle to the school and bring people
in authority to the school and say, 'This is what happens.' There's not
enough reality in the process for [the teens], somehow," he said. "We're
just trying to keep the kids alive. That seems to be a battle."