Remember how nerve-wracking it was on the day of your driver’s license exam, wondering if you were going to go in the correct lane, signal properly and nail the parallel-parking test?
If you were asked to complete that same test six months or a year later, after a few more miles on the road, you wouldn’t have broken a sweat.
That’s the difference experience can make behind the wheel. And that’s why Charlie Summers, Maine’s secretary of state, is pushing for stricter requirements on the licensing of young drivers.
Summers has been convening what he is calling “Conservations with Communities” throughout the state, taking from parents, teens and others recommendations on how to cut down on motor vehicle crashes, the No. 1 cause of death for people 15-24.
Summers wants to update driver education curriculum standards to reflect the impact on driving of smartphones and other new technology, which were not around when the standards were last touched up in 1996.
He also wants to move the curfew, from midnight to 10 p.m., after which a teen with an intermediate license cannot drive, and increase the length of time a teen must have a learner’s permit before getting an intermediate license, from six months to a year. Now, a teen with an intermediate license cannot drive with other teens, but can drive alone, with family or with licensed drivers over the age of 20. Summers has suggested that minimum age be raised to 25.
Summers is right to raise the question about whether today’s teen drivers are adequately prepared for the road. Drivers 16-24 make up 11 percent of the state’s licensed drivers, but are involved in 29 percent of motor vehicle deaths and 38 percent of injuries. (Elderly drivers also have an accident rate disproportionate to their population, so perhaps Summers should take on that issue, as well, particularly considering Maine’s aging population.)
It remains to seen, however, just what kind of impact the proposed changes would have on teen driving safety. Extra hours of training would give them more time to learn how to drive in different weather conditions, and what to do when faced with different situations.
But when that requirement is finished, whether it be after 35, 70 or 100 hours, the teens will still be teens, prone to impulsive, risk-taking behavior and random bouts of inattention.
There also may be unintended consequences. An earlier curfew, for instance, would prevent teens from taking jobs that keep them out past 10 p.m.
So Summers should also push more police departments to hold forums like the Teen Driving Awareness program in Biddeford, which are specifically targeted to parents of pre-permitted and newly permitted teens. These programs would be particularly helpful at a time when fewer schools are offering drivers education courses, and fewer students are opting to take the expensive private classes.
“The point we want to get across is that you can’t drive and do something else at the same time,” said Robert Flint, traffic specialist for the Biddeford police. “The fact is that driving is a full-time job.”
Programs like the one in Biddeford can help reinforce the message not only to teen drivers, but also to their parents, as it is the parents who have ultimate control on how often their kids drive.
Parents can also continually remind their teenagers to take seriously the privilege of having a license, and that even a second of unsafe behavior can lead to tragedy.
As Summers says, “We are allowing a young person to take charge of a 4,000- to 5,000-pound piece of metal, which they are driving at a high rate of speed. All I want is to make sure that everyone gets the best driver training possible.”
Ben Bragdon is the managing editor of Current Publishing. He can be reached at bbragdon@keepmecurrent.com or followed on Twitter.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
