Number of teen fatalities prompts push for stricter regulations on young drivers
ALBANY — Benjamin Kirsch had just picked up his prom tux, a day after getting his driver’s license, when he lost control of his speeding car and hit a tree. The Holland High School student died at 17.
Christie Trummer, a sophomore at Salamanca High School, was ejected from a car when her friend, a teen driver, became distracted by a dog in the vehicle and crashed. She died at 15.
On Staten Island, Michelle Arout was in the back seat of a car driven by her teen boyfriend, who was racing a friend at speeds up to 90 mph. When they collided, the car Arout was in was sliced in two. She died at 17.
And on Long Island, Saul Lopez and Quinntin McDonald just wanted to grab lunch off school grounds. They died in a crash in a car driven by another teen. Both were 17.
The stories go on and on, putting faces and names to the sobering statistic that car crashes are the number one cause of death for teenagers — accounting for 36 percent of all teenage deaths. In New York State, more than 200 teens die a year in these crashes.
Albany is taking notice. A series of high-profile car accidents around the state over the past year, including the horrific one in which five Rochester-area girls died last June, has given new life to long-stalled efforts to place more restrictions on teen drivers. Measures are on the table that would increase training of young drivers, limit the number of passengers in a vehicle when a teen is behind the wheel and prohibit electronic devices that distract young drivers.
“It’s too late for my family, but it’s not too late for the other teenagers out there,” said John Arout, the father of the dead Staten Island girl.
He has taken up the cause, complete with a Web site, of strengthening teen driving laws.
For opponents of tougher penalties and restrictions affecting teen drivers, Diane Magle has a message.
“If they could come and live my life for one day, they could realize the impact that it has on your life. It’s forever. Your life is changed forever,” said Magle, whose daughter Katie, 17, was killed in a 2005 Orchard Park crash involving a teen driver.
Scenes of cars ripped apart and long lines at wakes and candlelight vigils — routinely played out in newspapers and on TVs across the state — seem to be affecting state lawmakers. Once reluctant to anger parents, especially in upstate and on Long Island, where car is king for many teenagers, a growing number of lawmakers and Gov. David Paterson say New York needs to catch up with other states that have embraced stricter rules for teen drivers.
“The time is right,” said Sen. Thomas Libous, R-Binghamton, chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee.
Eleven years ago, his then- 16-year-old son was a passenger in a car driven by a teen on a Sunday afternoon. The car hydroplaned and hit another car head-on, killing two elderly women. He also talked of losing his 14-year-old nephew in the crash of a car driven by his teen niece.
“I’ve lived it in my family. We need to do everything we can,” Libous said.
Laws are confusing
New York places far fewer restrictions on teen drivers than do other states.
New York and New Hampshire are the only states that do not require a minimum holding period, typically six months, between the time a permit is issued and a license granted, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, a research group.
Thirty-eight states require more than the 20 hours New York teens with a permit must spend behind the wheel under the supervision of a parent or guardian.
Eleven states, including Ohio, Illinois, Florida and Massachusetts, have strict nighttime restrictions for teen drivers until they are 18. In New York, night restrictions can be lifted at 17.
And other states place greater limits on the number of nonfamily passengers in cars when a teen is behind the wheel. Some ban other passengers completely, or at least until the teen has been driving for six months. New York permits up to two nonfamily members in a teen-driven car.
Studies show a direct connection between crashes and how many kids are in a car. One found that cars with three teens present is three times more likely to be in a fatal crash than a car in which a teen driver is alone.
New York has one of the most confusing collections of laws for teen drivers and is the only state in the nation that has three sets of rules for teen drivers depending on their addresses: very strict in New York City, less restrictive on Long Island and far looser in upstate.
Yet 60 percent of crashes involving teens were in upstate in 2005, according to a University at Albany report. Now, even Senate Republicans who crafted the system to purposely make the rules more lax upstate say it needs to be changed.
Drivers between the ages of 16 and 24 account for 12 percent of drivers in New York, according to the Department of Motor Vehicles. But 20 percent of all crashes involve that age group. And in 2006, the most recent year for which records are available, 206 young drivers and their passengers were killed in the state. Speed, distraction, driver inexperience and carrying passengers were the top causes.
“If we saw these numbers coming back from a war zone, it’d be front-page news day after day,” said Sen. Vincent Leibell, a Putnam County Republican who is pushing for more practice hours for teen permit holders.
Two recent Buffalo-area accidents are being used in the legislative push.
Last month’s drag racing crash in Lancaster that killed two people, along with two other high-profile racing accidents downstate, is behind a bill adding new penalties for street racing.
The death last December of A.J. Larson, 20, who became distracted while text messaging and crashed into a truck in West Seneca, is among the cases fueling a push to ban the devices by drivers. That bill recently passed the Senate and has strong backing in the Assembly.
A variety of proposals
And there are other proposals.
One measure would ban all phones, including hands-free, for teen drivers. Another calls for special stickers on cars that teens are driving, to alert police or other drivers.
Still another bill requires parents to attend court appearances if their teen commits a traffic violation.
There is also a bill, aimed at distracted driving, which increases penalties for accidents caused by nondriving activities — from eating a slice of pizza to smoking to using a cell phone — whether hands-free or handheld.
The Paterson administration has proposed reducing from two to one the number of nonfamily passengers permitted in a car driven by a teen. It also wants to raise to 30 hours, including 10 hours at night, the time a teen practices driving with a parent or guardian.
Assembly Democrats have introduced the Paterson bill. But other measures go further.
Both houses embrace the idea of reducing the number of nonfamily passengers in a teen-driven car. Senate Republicans want 50 hours of supervised training.
There is also an effort to create a study group to devise more comprehensive answers. The sponsor, Sen. Andrew Lanza, a Staten Island Republican, said the study group could examine the different geographic rules for teen drivers and look for ways to expand driver education programs in schools. Critics say New York’s driver education program, run by the state Education Department, has become an afterthought and is in need of takeover by the DMV or some other agency.
Training is key
Some parents of teenagers killed in crashes say the state should raise the driving age and put better focus on training.
“It’s just too young to put a lethal weapon in the hands of someone,” Diane Magle said of giving permits at 16. Her daughter, a Mount Mercy Academy student, was killed in 2005.
But in a state with limited public transit and whose retailers and others rely on teenagers for after-school jobs, raising the legal age for driving is unlikely. Still, safety experts say there is plenty New York can do.
New York should require a new driver to hold a permit for at least six months before getting an initial license that restricts his or her driving to traveling to and from school, school activities and jobs, said Anne McCartt, senior vice president of research at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.
The state should also reduce the nonfamily passengers allowed in a car and make the age 18 for getting a full license with no restrictions, she said. Currently, the full license can be obtained if a 17-year-old takes a driver’s education course.
The renewed interest in passing stronger teen laws in New York is not unusual, McCartt said.
In fact, other states have used the deaths of the five Rochester-area teens last year as impetus to tighten rules.
“A lot of what you see in highway safety over the last couple decades is the power of personal stories,” she said.
Besides the pressure of hometown headlines in an election year, legislators are getting pushed to act by the American Automobile Association and other safety groups.
“Legislators are taking this serious,” said David Swarts, the state’s motor vehicles commissioner. “Given all that interest, there will be action this year.”
The state also wants to better target parents, Swarts said.
The DMV is looking at a voluntary system of notifying parents if their child is involved in a traffic incident, he said.
“We need to do what we can to educate parents on their responsibilities,” he said, noting many don’t know the teen driving laws.
The DMV has a new division dedicated to reducing teen accidents and researching other ideas, such as ending what Swarts acknowledged is the “confusing” driving rules between upstate and downstate.
“I think everything is on the table,” he said.
Efforts to tighten teen driving laws in the past led to fights with upstate lawmakers who didn’t want to anger parents by limiting teen driving rights, said Assemblyman Sandra Galef, a Westchester County Democrat. That is gone this year, she said.
“Maybe there’s just a sensitivity that we’re losing our teens,” she said.
A tough year
A year ago today, Joseph Hoffman was driving his car in the late afternoon near Joseph Davis State Park in Niagara County when it crossed the center lane and he struck another car. The 17-year-old Lewiston- Porter High School student died at the scene.
It’s been a tough few years for the school. A year earlier, another student, who had been working through the night on a robotics project, fell asleep at the wheel and died in a crash.
This year, two separate accidents involving four students occurred; no one was killed.
Assistant Principal John Diodate, who has to deal with these tragedies in hallway talks with students, says legislators should strengthen laws regarding training, passengers and distracting devices. But he acknowledged that not all teens will follow the law and some will not learn from the tragic accidents in which fellow students have died.
“I think the ones that really want to let it hit home will,” he said.
Diodate recalled Joseph, who transferred the previous year from Niagara Falls, as likable, polite and responsible. He had dreadlocks, was a skateboarder and a good student, he said.
“He was a great kid,” Diodate recalled.
On an internet message board, Joseph’s friends checked in after his death.
Justin from Niagara Falls wrote, “Joe, you didn’t deserve this. You were a good kid. RIP, man.”
Reporter Stephen Watson contributed to this story.
tprecious@buffnews.com
Reply With Quote