It’s one of the smartest revisions Maine has ever made to its driving laws, and probably one of the least popular among the teen-agers it was meant to protect.

Less than two years ago, the state enacted a graduated driver’s-license law requiring that new drivers under age 18 years wait at least 90 days before carrying teen passengers in their cars. The law was the most sensible to come along in years. Inexperienced young drivers face enough life-threatening dangers on the roads without having to deal with the often tragic distractions posed by carloads of gregarious friends.

Nevertheless, the idea had its critics. Secretary of State Dan Gwadosky, who led the effort to tighten Maine’s license laws, frequently fielded complaints during the two years he lobbied for the changes. Not surprisingly, some teens argued that they’d already had plenty of training on their learner’s permits, and any further restrictions were an unnecessary infringement of their newly licensed liberties. Many adults insisted that the proposal was just another example of Big Brother trying to mandate a sense of responsibility that was better left to the parents of new drivers to decide.

“If families did always carry out their responsibilities,” Gwadosky said at the time, “we wouldn’t need half the laws we’ve got.”

Gwadosky and his task force eventually won the support they needed for the bill by using the most potent weapon in their arsenal: alarming statistics showing that automobiles were the biggest killers of teens in Maine. While 16- to 20-year-olds represented only 6 percent of all licensed drivers, they accounted for nearly 20 percent of all accidents. Maine’s youngest drivers severely injured one-third of all passengers involved in accidents. Of those passengers killed in cars driven by young people, 85 percent were under 21.

As one of 47 states with graduated license laws that restrict teen driving, Maine is clearly on the right track. But for the law to be effective, it must be enforced. Because that’s a difficult job for police, it’s up to us parents to make sure the new drivers in our families are following the rules after they pull out of the driveway. According to a recent story in The Wall Street Journal, it may be the most worthwhile restriction we could ever impose on our kids.

A study by the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health, the newspaper reported, concluded that a 16-year-old carrying one teen passenger was 39 percent more likely to die in an accident than a teen driving without another teen in the car. Two teen passengers increased that risk by a staggering 86 percent. A report issued in December by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, according to The Wall Street Journal, showed that two thirds of the nation’s teen-age passengers killed in car crashes in the year 2000 died while other teens were driving.

In Michigan, which has some of the toughest laws in the country, not only are newly licensed drivers prohibited from carrying teen passengers but they also must spend 50 hours driving under adult supervision. The harsh restrictions appear to be paying off. After comparing Michigan’s teen accident rates before and after the license revisions were adopted, the Journal of the American Medical Association reported last October that crashes involving 16-year-olds had declined by 25 percent in that state. Nighttime accidents among teens fell by 50 percent, and accidents resulting in death or injury were down 24 percent.

The same study found that a North Carolina law prohibiting newly licensed teens from driving after 9 p.m. had resulted in a 57 percent decline in fatal accidents in that most vulnerable age group. Minor crashes fell by 23 percent in that state, daytime crashes by 20 percent and nighttime crashes by 43 percent.

As the statistics are just now beginning to prove across the country, the long-overdue restrictions on teen driving are rules that our kids definitely can live with.

Tom Weber’s column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.