I have my driver’s license since I was 16 years old. I took driver’s training in school and had on the road driving with the instructor in the car. Things have changed since then. I paid for the driver’s training class for my daughters. My mother did not have to pay for my class it was part of the curriculum. I would like to say that this is the difference in teen accidents but the truth is one month after I had my license I was in a car accident. That makes me a teen driver statistic.
The new AAA study reveals that teen drivers are approximately 50 percent more likely to crash in the first month of driving than they are after a full year of experience driving on their own, and are nearly twice as likely to suffer a crash as they are after two full years of experience. Researchers analyzed crashes of first-month teen drivers in North Carolina and found three common mistakes—failure to reduce speed, inattention and failure to yield—account for 57 percent of all crashes.
In accordance with several new studies, Gov. Tom Corbett signed into law new safeguards for teenage drivers.
The bill, known as "Lacey's Law" sponsored by Rep. Kathy Watson, a Bucks County Republican, had a constituent family lose their daughter, Lacey Gallagher, in an April 2007 crash where she was one of six teens riding in an SUV. None wore seat belts.
· For six months, teens without a parent in the vehicle are allowed one friend or similar person under 18, who is not a member of their household, as a passenger. If they have not caused an accident after six months, the teen driver could carry three such passengers while holding their junior license.
· It makes failure to wear seat belts a primary offense, so police can stop drivers under age 18 if they or their passengers are not wearing seat belts. Violations carry a $75 fine.
· The law also requires teens with learner's permits to have 65 hours of driving experience to get a junior license, up from 50 hours. Teens can get a junior license starting at age 16. There is also a new requirement of five hours of bad-weather driving and 10 hours of night driving.
“Teen drivers out there may feel that they are being singled out by this bill and, the fact is, they are. Each of our children, like Lacey Gallagher, represents our future, our hopes and our dreams. We are not ready to give them up to a needless accident and we support this bill because we care so much for them,” said Tom Corbett.
Would the new law have kept me from being a statistic? I was alone in the car, I had my seat belt on and it was broad day light. However, the new law requires 65 hours of driving experience and that would have been a plus. Old school, we applied for our permit & received it three months before we were sixteen and were taking our drivers test exactly 30 days after we turned sixteen. Lacey’s Law would have required I had driving time behind the wheel for much needed practice; my mother would have required it was with the driver’s ed instructor. THAT would have helped me avoid being a teen statistic!
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