Car crashes are the leading cause of death among American teens. Sixty-one percent of teen passengers are killed while riding with a teen driver. In response to those two statements, most US states and territories have adopted GDL laws. GDL is the acronym for Graduated Driver Licensing. While GDL does not guarantee that your teen will avoid being ticketed or injured in a crash, there are ways to help assess a teen driver’s maturity and experience that can increase her safety.
If you have a teen eager to learn to drive, becoming familiar with the GDL in your area will be one of the most important laws to understand. However, thinking beyond the GDL requirements and restrictions is essential to increasing the safety of teen drivers. Parents are the key to teen driver safety when they know which “knowledge lock” to open.
As an injury prevention educator for a local hospital, I teach youth and parents how to use the GDL components effectively. In an effort to reach more parents with this important information, I share much of what I teach through a series of articles.
Most components of the GDL law include: Minimum supervised driving requirement; Transportation of siblings and relatives; Peer-to-peer transport; Curfew; Driving record. These five components generally focus on the minimum legal requirements, but do not explain how to use the components effectively to include security considerations.
The first article in this series explained how the brain’s maturing role of the prefrontal cortex is intrinsically involved in adolescent driving development and focused on how to help a teenager develop well-practiced driving skills to prepare them for get the license.
Thinking outside the GDL box for passenger restriction and curfew
passenger restriction
While GDL laws regarding passenger transportation vary from state to state regarding siblings and relatives vs. transport between pairs, it is important to take into account:
1. Younger siblings are the second most difficult passengers to control; drunken passengers are the most difficult to control;
2. The older siblings are often judgmental and annoy the new driver;
3. Most GDL laws allow immediate transportation of up to three equal passengers in the second 6 months of license;
4. The potential for a fatal crash nearly doubles when carrying three equal passengers;
5. Sixty-one percent of teens who are killed in car crashes are passengers of a teen driver.
NOTE: Even as veteran drivers, parents have a hard time controlling drunk and passenger children. Why would we think newly licensed teen drivers are capable? Endangering the teen driver and his passengers for convenience is dangerous. Protecting the teen driver and passenger from her is risk management that is within parental control.
Strategies to consider for the transport of passengers between siblings and companions
Allow teen drivers to transport their siblings after the first year of solo driving
Parents help teens select their fellow passengers based on the trustworthy behavior of the teens they are considering
Once peer-to-peer passenger transportation is legal, allow teen drivers to carry only one peer-to-peer passenger at a time during their first year of license.
Allow the transport of two passengers in the second year of license
Postpone transporting three passengers until the teen has been driving without citations or accidents for a minimum of 2.5 years.
Parents should always be the drivers when teen teams need transportation and never rely on teen drivers to provide transportation.
In addition, the exposure to legal liability extends to the parents as long as the children are dependents taken as a tax deduction or the parents pay the higher amount of support for youth over the age of 18. Considering that auto accidents are the leading cause of death among 15- to 20-year-olds provides a good reason to prohibit college-age youth from driving when they are in school through their senior year. However, even veteran drivers who do not drive for long periods need time to redevelop driving acuity, therefore driving acuity is also compromised for young people who do not drive for long periods and thus , require some “driving supervision” before being allowed to drive alone again.
Curfew
Most GDL laws include a curfew of midnight to 5:00 a.m. However, a large number of accidents involving teens occur right after school, between 3:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. , and more than 40% of teen crashes occur between the hours of 9:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. Speeding and distraction are recognized as major contributors to night-time crashes among teens, but may not be realize that driving at night requires an additional skill set.
Curfew Safety Strategies to Consider
Focus on developing your teen’s safe, strong, and confident daytime driving skills.
Drive periodically with the teen to assess whether good driving habits are being eroded by unsafe behavior.
Practice night driving with the teen for a period of two years before allowing the teen to drive at night.
