Question of the Month
February
2004
Which
Midwestern states restrict the number of passengers a teen-age driver
can have in his or her vehicle?
According to
Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety — an alliance of consumer,
health and safety groups and insurance companies and agents — Illinois,
Indiana and Wisconsin are three of the 20 states
nationwide that had this kind of restriction on teen-age drivers as of
October 2003. These provisions have been enacted as part of states’
graduated driver licensing programs.
Illinois lawmakers approved the
legislation last year, and it became effective Jan. 1. For the first
six months after a teen-ager receives a driver’s license, or until
the individual turns 18, he or she cannot operate a motor vehicle with
more than one passenger under the age of 20. Exceptions are made if
the passengers are siblings or children of the driver. Similarly,
Wisconsin’s nine-month probationary license period restricts young
drivers from driving with more than one of their peers (immediate
family members are again excluded from the rule). During the first 90
days in which an Indiana teen-ager receives a probationary license,
adult supervision is mandated whenever the driver is transporting
other passengers.
Graduated driver licensing programs
often carry other restrictions as well. For example, teens are
sometimes forbidden from driving altogether during certain hours of
the day, usually between midnight and 5 a.m. or during times that
coincide with curfew laws. Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety
recommends more-stringent nighttime restrictions, noting that most
crashes involving young drivers occur before midnight.
States have started to enact tougher
licensing programs for teens because they are involved in a higher
percentage of traffic accidents than other age groups. In 2002,
individuals between the ages of 15 and 20 were involved in 14.6
percent of the nation’s fatal traffic crashes, the National Highway
Traffic Safety Administration reports. That same age group accounted
for only 6.6 percent of the total driving population in 2001. Based on
estimated miles traveled annually, drivers between the ages of 16 and
19 have a fatality rate four times the rate of drivers between the
ages of 25 and 69. More information is available at www.saferoads.org/issues/fs-GDL.htm.
For
more information on this or any other public policy issue, please call
630-925-1922 or complete the online
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