It took the death of two friends to make 16-year-old Luke Peschel change his ways.
After Peschel got his driver’s license in September, he skirted the state’s tougher teen driving laws by giving young friends a lift and accepting rides from other teenagers.
But that changed for Peschel after schoolmates Ian Wallace and Joshua Bankett-Land, 17-year-old seniors at Smoky Hill High in Aurora, died of injuries suffered in a Dec. 27 car wreck. The driver was 16 and wasn’t supposed to be driving with teenage passengers.
“Ever since the accident, I haven’t been in the car alone with anyone (my age),” said Pesch el, who was not involved in the accident. “And whenever I ask for a ride … I always ask the drivers how long they’ve had their license.”
Since the deaths, Peschel says he follows Colorado’s graduated driver’s license laws, also known as GDLs, which spell out rules and requirements for inexperienced teen drivers.
But Peschel, teenagers across the metro area and authorities say they know a more sobering truth: Most teenagers aren’t following the rules, putting themselves and others at risk.
Drivers under age 18 are not allowed to have passengers under 21 in their car for the first six months they have a license, according to a Colorado law that went into effect in July.
Between six months and a year, a driver under 18 is allowed one passenger under the age of 21. Exceptions are made for siblings and medical emergencies.
After a year, such restrictions are lifted.
Peschel’s real-life lesson has his parents breathing a sigh of relief, as he has changed his driving habits. They pray that others follow his lead.
“I’m just hopeful,” Terri Pesch el said. “I’m just hopeful that this has made a difference in someone else’s life.”
The driver in the accident, 16-year-old Michael Stillwagon, and a front-seat passenger, Alton Coward, 17, survived the crash on South Parker Road near East Temple Drive in Aurora.
Police say Stillwagon, who got his driver’s license in September, was distracted by his passengers and swerved across the median into oncoming traffic. The car hit two others.
Having three teenage passengers in the car, including the two who died and who were not buckled into their seats, is a violation of the GDL laws. Stillwagon has not been charged with any traffic offense. The accident remains under investigation by Aurora police.
Meanwhile, authorities, parents and teachers hope to turn the tragedy into a life lesson.
Retired state Trooper Floyd White teaches driving to 14- and 15-year-old students in an after-school class at Mountain Ridge Middle School in Highlands Ranch.
Just before the class started last week, a handful of White’s students said they knew about the GDL laws but that few teenagers bother to abide by them.
“None of my friends will,” said Spencer Heins, 15. “I wouldn’t do it. My friends gave me rides, so I have to return the favor.”
The kids knew that the new law was a “secondary offense,” meaning they couldn’t be cited unless they were stopped for some other violation. And, they say, they aren’t too worried about the penalty – a $42 fine per violation and two points against their license.
“It’s kind of dumb,” Ashley Forrand, 15, said of the law.
Before this rather skeptical audience, White began class with a talk about the accident. He emphasized the legal entanglements and difficult times awaiting Stillwagon, the driver.
“He has to get up and look in the mirror every morning and know he killed two of his friends,” White said.
As head of Teen Sharp Driving School, Lori Goodwin of Highlands Ranch visits six schools, mostly in Douglas County, where 11 students were killed in wrecks between September 2004 and September 2005. And each day, she watches cars flow out of school parking lots for lunch breaks, each vehicle illegally loaded with teenagers.
So many teenagers just don’t seem to get it, she lamented.
“It’s not cool to eat lunch at school,” she said, parroting the teens who flout the law.
Auto-safety experts, however, say GDL laws in Colorado and elsewhere have helped reduce the number of teen driver accidents but that to make them even more effective, teens and their parents have to buy into the program.
“As a concept, it is universally accepted throughout the country,” said Peter Kissinger, president of Washington D.C.-based AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety. “(GDL) is probably the most effective intervention, or countermeasure, we have put into effect in this country over the last decade.”
Nationally, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety reports that the overall number of 16- year-old driver deaths fell from 1,084 in 1993 to 938 in 2003 despite an 18 percent increase in the 16-year-old population.
Colorado’s GDL law was adopted in 1999 and has since been amended.
The law also prohibits drivers under 18 from driving between midnight and 5 a.m. until the driver holds a license for at least one year, although there are authorized exceptions such as driving to and from work or school activities.
The GDL law also states that any driver 17 or younger must have all passengers in the vehicle buckled in. The number of passengers cannot exceed the number of seat belts. The legislature also has banned cellphone use by teen drivers who are in the permit stage.
Since the tightening of the GDL law in July, the Colorado State Patrol has written 49 tickets for violations.
Sue Postma was one of only two parents who personally delivered their children to White’s class. She wants her 15-year-old son, Adam, to have every advantage behind the wheel, including understanding the laws that apply to him, she said.
She recognizes a problem in her plan to abide by the new law aimed at keeping kids from carpooling.
“As tough as you can be as a parent, you can’t control what other parents allow their kids to do,” she said.
Her son, however, will face “big trouble” if he skirts the law and takes a ride, she said.
Luke Peschel, who had a “heart-to-heart” talk with his parents after the accident and promised to follow the driving laws, said he now understands why the GDL laws are on the books.
“I have now found the reason for the law,” Peschel said. “At first, I thought it was pointless. But now I see the reason why.”
Staff writer Kieran Nicholson can be reached at 303-820-1822 or knicholson@denverpost.com.
Staff writer Joey Bunch can be reached at 303-820-1174 or jbunch@denverpost.com.
