CHICAGO — Taking aim at a long- standing rite of passage for 16-year- olds, an influential auto safety group is calling on states to raise the age for getting a driver’s license to 17 or even 18.
Adrian Lund, president of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, a research group funded by the auto insurance industry, acknowledged that the idea is “a tough sell” but noted that car crashes are the leading cause of death among teenagers.
“The bottom line is that when we look at the research, raising the driving age saves lives,” Lund said.
He plans to present the proposal today at the annual conference of the Governors Highway Safety Association in Scottsdale, Ariz.
Not surprisingly, a lot of teens hate the idea.
“I would really be upset because I’ve waited so long to drive,” said Diamante White, a 16-year-old in Reading, Pa., who got her permit in July. She said learning to drive is a “growing-up experience.”
Many parents agree. They also like not having to chauffeur their teens to school, sporting events and any number of other places.
“Do we really want our kids dependent upon parents for virtually everything until they go to college, can vote and serve their country?” asked Margaret Menotti, a mother in Uxbridge, Mass.
She said keeping teens from driving would make them less responsible. Some parents note that this comes just as some college presidents suggest lowering the drinking age to 18.
Among other things, institute researchers have compiled decades’ worth of data from New Jersey, the only state that issues licenses at 17. Various studies have shown that the overall rate of teens killed in crashes in New Jersey has been consistently lower than in some nearby states.
And those rates, researchers said, dropped in New Jersey and other states after they instituted graduated driver’s license programs.
Graduated licensing, which is used in Colorado and has become the standard across the country in the past 15 years, requires teens to spend more time driving with a parent or other responsible adult before they go solo. Though these rules are sometimes difficult to enforce, many states tie these rules to declining teen crash rates.
In Colorado, 15-year-olds can get an instructional permit but can drive only with an instructor or the adult who authorized them to get the instruction permit. After showing sufficient training, a 16-year-old may take a driving test and get a license — with restrictions.
For the first six months with a license, minor drivers in Colorado can’t have passengers younger than 21. They may not have more than one passenger younger than 21 until they have had a license for more than a year, unless there is an adult present or the younger passengers are family members. With certain exceptions, minor drivers also may not be behind the wheel between midnight and 5 a.m. until after having the license for a full year.
More than 5,000 U.S. teens die each year in car crashes. The rate of crashes, fatal and nonfatal, per mile driven for 16-year-old drivers is almost 10 times the rate for drivers ages 30 to 59, according to the National Highway Safety Administration.
Many industrialized countries in Europe and elsewhere have a driving age of 17 or 18.
“Getting the highest of the high-risk drivers away from the wheel probably isn’t a bad idea,” said Dr. Barbara Gaines, trauma director at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh.
But she noted that teen drivers in the Pittsburgh area with moving violations must attend a “reality education” program at her hospital. They tour the intensive-care unit and talk with young drivers who had serious crashes.
Andrea Summers, coordinator of the teen driving program for the Delaware Office of Highway Safety, said her state and others have chosen to toughen laws without raising the driving age — by banning teens from using cellphones while driving, imposing stricter driving curfews and expanding supervised driving time.
Others say there is too much worry about teen drivers, and not enough about others who cause serious problems on the road.
Karen Sternheimer, a University of Southern California sociologist who studies accident statistics, cited federal data from 2007 showing that drivers ages 25 to 34, as well as those ages 45 to 64, were nearly twice as likely to be involved in alcohol-related fatalities as 16- to 20-year-old drivers.
“The intense focus on teens diverts our attention from the real threats to public safety: speeding and driving while intoxicated,” she said.
