Tennessee’s New Law
by Jean Scott
16-year-old drivers are the deadliest of all, reports show. Our Graduated Drivers Licensing (GDL) law went into effect on July 1, a law that takes away the car keys at night, outlaws carloads of youth, and uses a longer, better supervised learning period.
Parents love it — law enforcement officials love it — teens hate it! That’s the new GDL statute, a four-tiered licensing system under which novice drivers are given full driving privileges gradually, after an extended period of education, supervised driving with nighttime restrictions, and a citation and alcohol-free driving record.
“Tennessee has put in place a good law that will reduce motor vehicle crashes and save lives,” said Robert Hurns, counsel for the National Association of Independent Insurers (NAII). “Traffic accidents are the number one cause of death for teenagers. Without question, inexperience behind the wheel is the leading contributor to traffic fatalities among young people. GDL laws play a critical role in making our roads safer by strengthening the licensing process and helping young drivers become more experienced driver.”
Not all states have GDL laws, but the majority do. Not all states with these laws require all four major elements of safety (Tennessee does):
- Learner’s permit for a minimum period
- Extra behind-the-wheel training
- Restriction on night driving
- Restriction on passengers
To obtain a learner’s permit one must be 15 years of age and pass a written and visual exam. The driver must be accompanied by a licensed driver who is 21 years of age or older and he/she may never drive between 10:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m.
For an intermediate license, the applicant must be 16 years of age, and pass the driver’s skills test (road test). He/she must have held a learner’s permit for at least 180 days. No driving is allowed between 11:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. unless accompanied by a parent and other passengers must be family members only.
At 17 years of age an unrestricted intermediate license is issued, if the driver has held the intermediate license for one year.
Full, unrestricted driving privileges are automatically given at age 18. All of these progressions are dependent on a citation and alcohol-free driving record. These add time to the licensing periods, as well as requiring the driver to complete a certified driver’s ed course before being eligible for an unrestricted license.
RID has been solidly behind this law, of course. Although alcohol is not the major cause of crashes involving the youngest drivers, it becomes an increasing causative factor as teens grow older. This newsletter has reported this past year on two alcohol and drug caused fatal crashes that heaped tragedy on victims and their families, as well as for the youthful driver themselves, and indeed, for the entire community. Both these drivers were 17 years of age, and would not have been legally eligible to be driving on those fatal nights, had this new law been in place.
Parents have been unfortunately, naively swallowing myths about teen driving for years. These include: alcohol as a cause (discussed above), and driver’s ed makes kids better drivers (The American Journal of Preventative Medicine’s analysis of studies done on driver’s ed found “no convincing evidence that high school driver education reduces motor vehicle crash-involvement rates.”) They believe, in spite of statistics to the contrary, that substance abuse is the leading threat to teens — no, it’s car crashes. And the hardest myth of all to let go of is the pervasive belief that good students automatically make good drivers because they are more responsible. Like playing the piano or mastering a sport like tennis, driving requires experience and lots of practice — it is a complex psychomotor task and should be taken very seriously by both teens and their parents.
Studies have shown that the GDL laws save lives; nighttime crashes have been reduced from 25-69%, according to teen-driving researcher David Preusser. And the 16-year-old driver crash rate — which is five times higher than for over-25 drivers is dropping, and will continue to do so. It is hoped that soon all states will have these laws, and the car crash body count will be reduced in much the same way that driving while intoxicated and seat belt laws have done in the past decade. Our kids are our nation’s most precious resource, and we want to stop killing so many of them!