The Lane Ranger: For teen drivers, safety starts with parents
Joey Ledford - Staff
Monday, November 6, 2000

The sad truth is that it takes deaths to get people's attention when it comes to driving.

We've lost 71 metro Atlantans age 15 through 20 in traffic crashes --- including 36 drivers --- in just the first eight months of 2000 and, suddenly, teen driving is back on the public agenda.

A consensus is forming: We need more parental responsibility, mandatory and improved driver training, and possibly even tougher laws.

Parents not only must make sure their teenagers learn how to drive and get plenty of experience, they should also practice a little home-based law enforcement.

Tom Enright, a former federal highway safety official and current spokesman for Team Georgia, a safe driving group, told about what happened a few years ago when he happened to see his teenage daughter not wearing her seat belt.

"I said, 'Give me your license. It's suspended for a month,' " he said. "I can't recall that she talked to me that entire month."

But the tough love worked. Years later, Enright's then-pregnant daughter and her child both survived a serious crash without a scratch because both were properly restrained.

About 60 percent of the teens who die in crashes weren't buckled up. Seat belt use is a basic requirement that parents must demand.

And it's only part of what a parent needs to do.

"Parents who let kids get into a car with a bunch of kids who don't have (driving) experience ... are, in my opinion, guilty of child endangerment," said Enright.

Georgia's teen driving law currently allows 16- and 17-year-old drivers to have up to three teenage passengers in their cars. Time after time, the deaths are occurring in a car packed with teens.

"In California, for the first six months after they get their license, teens are allowed no passengers under age 20," said Brian Luders, a Lawrenceville accountant and safe teen driving advocate. "My son is on a three months no-passenger rule now."

Luders is lobbying for a no-passenger period to become state law here. He also proposes a graduated rise in the number of allowed passengers; a teen driver would not be allowed three until a year after being licensed.

Ted Allred, vice president of AAA Auto Club South, which is proposing a beefed-up mandatory driver's ed curriculum that includes more on-the-road experience and the addition of defensive driving training, said one passenger is plenty up to age 21.

"Ninety percent of those kids would be alive today if we had a guest passenger law," he said of Georgia's recent deaths. "That again emphasizes the need for parental involvement."

Enright said he believes Georgia's 1-5 a.m. curfew on teen driving is inadequate.

"North Carolina has been willing to bite the bullet --- their restriction is 9 p.m.," with an exception for school activities, he said.

Opinions are mixed on a higher driving age, supported by Gov. Roy Barnes and several key lawmakers. Allred said AAA is opposed to a driving age hike.

"All we're going to do is have a bunch of 17-year-old inexperienced drivers instead of 16-year-olds," he said.

Enright, however, cites studies that indicate teens tend to gain a great deal of maturity between 16 and 17, which he thinks should be the new driving age.

Luders believes Georgia should require parents and teens to keep a driving log and document that a learner's permit holder has amassed at least 50 hours of driving experience, including 10 at night and five in the rain.

New laws or not, it all comes back to the parents.

"We, as a society, just have to make parents responsible," said Smyrna Police Chief Stanley Hook. That becomes doubly difficult, he added, considering how parents themselves drive.

"Maybe we should call this place Disney World," he said of metro Atlanta's roadways. "Because everybody's goofy."

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TEEN DRIVING DEATHS
Traffic deaths of those aged 15-20 in metro Atlanta in 2000 (through Aug. 31)
County....Total..Driver..Passenger..Pedestrian
Bartow......3...... 2........1..........0
Carroll.... 3...... 2........1..........0
Cherokee....6...... 4........1..........1
Clayton.... 1...... 0........1..........0
Cobb........12......5........6..........1
Coweta......1...... 0........1..........0
DeKalb......8...... 6........1..........1
Fayette.... 1...... 1........0..........0
Forsyth.... 3...... 2........1..........0
Fulton......12......3........6..........3
Gwinnett....10......4........6..........0
Hall........1...... 1........0..........0
Henry...... 2...... 2........0..........0
Newton......1...... 0........1..........0
Paulding....3...... 2........1..........0
Pickens.... 1...... 0........1..........0
Rockdale....1...... 0........1..........0
Walton......2...... 2........0..........0
Metro total..71.... 36...... 29........ 6
Statewide..150......83...... 59........ 8
Source: Georgia Department of Public Safety