Teen drivers have long been the most prone to being involved in car accidents resulting in serious injury or wrongful death. Many states including California have implemented graduated driver’s license programs for teen drivers that grant driving privileges in stages to inexperienced teen drivers. It has long been presumed that these programs reduce teen accident rates by introducing potential hazards that make driving more difficult in phases. There is also a growing body of evidence that restrictions on teen driving behavior and the gradual phase in of driving privilege for inexperienced teen drivers reduces teen accident rates and crash related fatalities involving teenage drivers.
California’s graduated drivers license program requires that new teen driver’s receive their license through a three-step process. A new teen driver must complete fifty (50) hours of driving supervised by an adult after being issues a driving permit. Once this and other requirements have been met, a driver between the ages of 16-18 is granted a provisional license. The new teen driver is subject to the following restrictions for the first 12 months or the driver’s 18th birthday under a provisional driver’s license:
- The teen driver may not transport anyone under the age of 20 unless a licensed adult over 25 is in the vehicle
- A licensed adult driver must accompany the new teen driver if driving between the hours of 11 p.m. and 5 a.m.
These rules along with others that restrict inexperienced teen drivers in San Francisco and throughout the Bay Area are designed to gradually introduce potential risk factors and obstacles as opposed to inundating teen drivers with all of these potential risks simultaneously. The restriction on transporting passengers reduces the risk of new teen drivers being distracted by teen passengers while the night restriction reduces the risk associated with less visibility and the higher number of drunk drivers on the roads after dark.
These restrictions are supplemented by others that limit new teen drivers, such as the “Zero Tolerance” policy for driving with alcohol in a teen’s blood and a ban on using a cell phone while driving. California’s zero tolerance policy for underage drinking and driver is among the toughest in the nation. A teen driver is not permitted to drive with ANY measurable amount of alcohol in the driver’s blood. Drivers under the age of 18 also are banned from the use of cell-phones (with or without hands-free devices), laptops, pagers, and other electronic devices when operating a motor vehicle.
Graduated licensing restrictions and other laws imposing limits on new teen drivers have reduced the number of teen accidents significantly, but teen drivers continue to pose the greatest risk of causing serious car accidents. There is a wealth of evidence supporting the positive impact of these restrictions on teen drivers in reducing teen driving related accidents. A study by John Hopkins School of Medicine found an 11 percent reduction in 16-year-old accidents in states with graduated license programs. Studies by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that graduated license programs with the strictest requirement reduced fatalities among 16-year-old drivers by as much as 20 percent. Despite the improvements in teen car accident rates resulting from restrictions on inexperienced teen drivers, motor vehicle accidents remain the leading cause of death for teen drivers. Data from the CDC reveals that eight teenage drivers aged 16-19 die per day in motor vehicle accidents, and teens are four times more likely to be killed in a car accident than an older driver.
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If you or someone you love has been injured or a loved one has died in a San Francisco car accident involving an inexperienced teen driver, you should contact us as soon as possible because critical deadlines apply. Our San Francisco auto accident attorneys invite you to contact our firm for your free initial consultation. We are open 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., speak Cantonese and Mandarin Chinese, and are available for weekend, evening, home and hospital meetings and visits. We also offer free initial consultations and work exclusively on a contingency fee basis so that you pay nothing if we don’t win your case.