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More: Auto Safety Tips
Graduated Licensing
More than a third of all deaths occurring between the ages
of 16 and 18 are from car crashes. High school driver education
is not the answer. It may be the most convenient way to learn
driving skills, but it doesn't produce safer drivers because
it's often not poor skills that cause crashes. It's teen's
attitudes:
- Peer pressure influences young teens more than advice
from adults.
- Young teens are slower than adults to perceive danger
and, when they do, they often feel immune to it.
- Teens don't relate to mortality. As a result, they don't
use seatbelts as often as older drivers and they deliberately
seek thrills like speeding.
A promising approach to the problem of teenage crash deaths
and injuries involves controlling access to unrestricted driving,
lifting controls one by one until a young driver "graduates"
to full licensure. The key is to influence when beginners
drive and with whom. Restrictions typically include:
- limitations on teen passengers
- prohibitions on night driving and
- requirements that beginners drive only with older, experienced
drivers
Graduated licensing began in New Zealand in 1987. It has proved
effective, and similar systems were adopted last year in two
Canadian provinces. Now graduated licensing is generating interest
in the United States.
Driving is a far more complex task than most 16 year-olds
realize. Beginners need to accumulate a considerable amount
of experience before they're able to combine steering, scanning
the environment, and other driving skills. And handling a
car responsibly takes more than mastering the skills. It takes
gaining the maturity to gain sound judgments.
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