Safer driving

State senators this week got some reinforcing information suggesting that they were correct in their vote to prohibit drivers under 21 from carrying passengers other than immediate family for the first 90 days they are licensed. The information should help the full Legislature support this life-saving measure.

In a study of 16- and 17-year-old drivers this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association, researchers reported that, “The risk of death increased significantly for drivers transporting passengers irrespective of the time of day or sex of the driver, although male drivers were at greater risk. Driver deaths per 1,000 crashes increased for 16- and 17-year-olds transporting male passengers or passengers younger than 30 years.” The greater the number of passengers, the study also found, the greater the risk of a crash.

Motor vehicle deaths have dropped for every age group but 16-year-olds, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, with these new drivers accounting for seven times the death rate per miles driven than drivers between the ages of 30 and 59. Auto crashes, the public is often reminded, remain the leading cause of death among teen-agers. In Maine, 18 teen-age drivers died as a result of crashes in 1998; 45 motor-vehicle fatalities that year were people 15 to 24 years old, about 25 percent of all deaths in that category.

To counter these tragedies, 24 states have tried graduated drivers licenses, which set stricter standards for new drivers and require them to gain experience before they get full privileges. Nine states have adopted what Maine Secretary of State Dan Gwadosky has proposed — that new drivers get more road time without the distraction of buddies. Reports from these fairly new programs have shown crash rates dropping between 7 percent and 32 percent, the savings of lives and heartbreak being incalculable.

The primary objection to the graduated license idea seems to be that it is too much like Big Brother, with enforcement difficult. Enforcement, as always, will require the good judgment of officers. But on the Big Brother issue, sometimes it is worth being a pest, and there is no better time than when young drivers are learning how to drive safely.

Certainly, some teen-agers won’t like it and, though the statistics suggest otherwise, might even come up with some creative reasons that the new restriction isn’t necessary. As long as they’re all around to protest, the law will have been worth it.