Safe Teen Driving Blog

As the parent of a teenage driver, Police Chief Roger Boatner, of Lakeland, Florida worries when his daughter is behind the wheel. However, his worries are not with her own driving skills or with the locations she visits. He worries most about the many drivers he sees doing nearly everything but driving as they cruise down the street.

Those who spend even a few seconds changing a CD, answering the cell phone, or taking a bite of a sandwich can cause a serious accident. Other troopers agree with the seriousness of the problem of distracted driving. Larry Coggins of the Florida State Highway Patrol claims that in every crash there can be some type of driver error found.

Many studies have been done on the effects of cell phones and other distractions while driving. While exact numbers have varied, the basic results have been the same.

• Virginia Tech's Transportation Institute found that drivers who talk on cell phones are 4 times more likely to be involved in a serious crash.
• The National Highway Traffic Administration carried out a study, which found that more than 75% of crashes and 66% of near misses occurred when drivers were engaged in conversations on cell phones.
• The University of Utah carried out an experiment that resulted in the conclusion that drivers talking on cell phone were just as impaired as an intoxicated driver.
  

Results such as these have caused a few states to pass laws prohibiting all drivers from talking on cell phones while behind the wheel. Even more states have implemented similar laws, but focused them only on teenage drivers. Unfortunately, Florida is yet to have created one of these laws.

The Sheriff's Office in Polk County, Florida has decided that these messages are so important that they have placed them on their phone system as a hold message. Additionally, they remind drivers of the importance of wearing their seat belts.

The Polk Sheriff's Office handled 50 traffic deaths within their jurisdiction. Of these, officers believe that at least 14 lives would have been saved if the victims had been wearing a seat belt. To prevent more of these accidents from claiming the lives of young people, Florida has enacted a law allowing officers to pull cars over if passengers under the age of 18 years old are seen unrestrained.

Labels: cell.phone, florida, seat.belt, teen.driver

A proposed law restricting the number of teen passengers a driver under 18 is allowed to transport has been held up in the Florida House Of Representatives. The bill, which would prevent underage drivers from having more than one underage passenger in the car, was originally presented by Representative Kelly Skidmore, a Democrat from Boca Raton. The reasoning behind writing this piece of legislation was to reduce the number of accidents and fatalities due to distractions caused by peers while driving.

Many other states have successfully passed similar bills and have already seen a difference in the numbers of accidents and other statistics related to teen driving and the distraction of additional passengers. Here are some staggering statistics that inspired the Florida legislator to write this legislation:

• 36 states, plus the District of Columbia, have passed graduated licensing laws restricting the number of passengers a teenage driver may transport.
• The accident rate for 16 year old drivers was reduced by 36 percent since state governments began passing these laws.
• In 28 percent of fatal accidents involving 16-year-old drivers, there were at least three passengers in the vehicle.
• In the year 2000, among 13-19 year old vehicle passengers, 63 percent of fatal accidents happened when other teens were behind the wheel.

The law in Florid would only permit drivers under the age of 18 to drive with one passenger under the age of 18, with the exclusion of siblings and their own children. Those who are caught with more passengers in the car would face a $60 fine and 3 points on their license.

Arguments against the bill varied, but the main fight was from the Representatives in the business community. They left as if passing this bill would make carpooling to work by teenage employees difficult. Many argued that excessive amounts of gasoline would be wasted and traffic would increase, as these drivers would have to drive to work in other vehicles. While the points are certainly valid, other legislators feel as if the benefits would outweigh the inconvenience, by keeping more teen drivers alive.

Teach your teen how to become a Safe Driver with the Driver Education Handbook for Parents developed by Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles Certified Chief Instructors.

Labels: florida, graduated.license, passenger.limit