Restricting teen drivers could save lives, say lawmakers

Kirsten Searer

Saturday, April 2, 2005 | 9:15 a.m.

WEEKEND EDITION

April 2 - 3, 2005

CARSON CITY -- Jim Dunning is fine with legislators using his son's death as a lightning rod for change.

He says something should have been done years ago about reckless teen drivers.

His son Travis was one of three 15-year-olds who died in November 2003 when a 16-year-old driver crashed the 1995 Pontiac Grand Am in which they were riding into a wall in Henderson.

Parents of children who were involved in the crash -- even the mother of the boy who caused it -- have openly wondered if the children would be alive today if legislators had passed a graduated driver's license bill that would put restrictions on teen drivers in Nevada.

Sen. Barbara Cegavske, R-Las Vegas, has proposed a graduated license every session since 1997. It has been rejected every time.

"I just think it should have been passed a long time ago," Dunning said. "But it looks like politics have gotten in the way."

This legislative session could be different. Driven by the tragic images of the Henderson accident, lawmakers in the Nevada Senate and Assembly say they're closer to a compromise that not only would restrict how early teens can have full driving privileges but also resurrect driver's education in the state.

No. 1 cause of death

Accidents are the number one cause of death for Nevada teens, according to statistics given to the Assembly Transportation Committee.

Just 1.9 percent of Nevada's drivers are 16 or 17 years old, but teen drivers are involved in 7.2 percent of accidents in the state.

Three-fourths of teens killed in Nevada crashes were being driven by other teens. And research shows that nationally teen drivers are most likely to get in an accident in their first month of driving. Crash rates drop after that, according to several studies cited in a 2004 article in the Journal of Safety Research.

The article cited studies in California, Iowa and Pennsylvania that showed teen crash rates dropped at least 14 percent and as much as 28 percent after graduated driver's license programs were implemented.

Those statistics are some of the many reasons why the Senate and Assembly appear to be seriously considering bills that would limit the licenses of drivers under the age of 18 and mandate that driver's education be taught in public high schools. Supporters say the legislation would go a long way toward helping prevent crashes by mandating training.

Currently, state law allows for driver learning permits at 15 1/2 years of age, after passing a written test. At 15 years, 9 months of age, Nevadans can apply for a license after completing a driver's education course and presenting a form signed by a parent or guardian saying the teen has had 50 hours behind the wheel. After passing the state driver's test, a teen gets a license. The only restriction -- on transporting other teens -- lasts from 30 to 90 days, depending on how old the driver is.

That, supporters of the graduated driver's license bill say, isn't enough. Advocates of the bill said parents who have lost children have mobilized and are looking for justice.

"I just don't know how I'm going to face these parents again if we don't pass this bill," said Erin Breen, director of the Safe Community Partnership Program at UNLV's Transportation Research Center, who has worked for years trying to establish a graduated driver's license program.

Simple idea

The idea of a graduated driver's license is simple and has been implemented in some form in 41 states.

In essence, it allows a teenager to slowly earn driving privileges with parental supervision. Proponents say it's the most proven way to decrease teen accidents.

Bills in both houses of the Nevada Legislature -- Assembly Bill 77 and Senate Bill 60 -- would make the state's currently limited graduated driver's license more stringent. Both bills would make 16 the minimum age required for licensing.

Teen drivers also would have to wait six months before their friends could be their passengers.

The Senate bill goes further, requiring teens to log a certain amount of hours with their parents, including night driving.

Cegavske said she has concerns about an amendment to AB 77 that would allow teen drivers to carry one nonfamily passenger with them after they obtain their license.

Even one passenger can be a distraction, she said.

Debate over the bills pits legislators who say parents should decide when their children can drive against people who argue teens aren't developmentally ready to make decisions about what long-term Clark County driver's ed teacher Rick Neimczewski calls "a 2,000-pound weapon."

Every senator except Sen. Maggie Carlton, D-Las Vegas, signed on to the Senate bill.

Carlton said she imposed stricter measures than SB60 requires when she allowed her daughter to first start driving. But she said she thinks parents should be able to choose when their children receive driving privileges.

Her daughter was able to drive with friends to the movies or other places on special occasions, Carlton said.

Carlton, like other legislators, also has pointed out that Sean Larimer, the driver in Travis Dunning's accident, was breaking other laws when he crashed the car. He was speeding, and he had been drinking.

"I don't think it (a graduated driver's license) would have solved any of the problems that happened," Carlton said.

Some of the lawmakers' constituents also oppose adding more restrictions to the teens' driver's licenses. Assemblyman William Horne, D-Las Vegas, one of the Assembly bill's main sponsors, said he has received e-mails from parents who say they look forward to their children getting licenses so they can take siblings to soccer practice or go to the grocery store.

Susan Larimer testified before legislators earlier this session that she first had qualms about letting Sean drive, but she relaxed her rules after her divorce. She needed to get a job and she needed her son to help.

"I changed my rules," she told the committee.

The mother publicly lamented her decision. Her son, writing from jail, also asked legislators to restrict teens through a graduated license program. Making sure teens can't ride around with friends in their car will save lives, Larimer wrote.

"I lie in my cell at night and think about how badly I screwed things up," he wrote.

He is to remain in juvenile detention until Feb. 23, 2006.

The advantage of a graduated driver's license, Breen said, is that it's "a tool for parents to say, 'No, you can't (drive). It's against the law in the state of Nevada.' "

Best of both worlds

Proponents of Assembly Bill 77 say it combines the best of both worlds -- education in the classroom along with a graduated license that will give parents a tool to reign in their teens.

Insurance companies would be required to give premium reductions to students who take the class.

The bill cleared the Assembly Transportation Committee and is headed to the Assembly Ways and Means Committee.

Insurance companies say they will provide the rate cut, but are unsure that driver's education is the best way to reduce accidents.

Studies have proven that graduated driver's licenses are the best way to reduce the numbers of traffic crashes caused by teen drivers, said Sam Sorich, the western regional manager for the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America.

Other experts say that it will take a stringent graduated license program and driver's education to significantly reduce the number of traffic crashes caused by teen drivers.

"You've got to have the combination," said Ron Moracco, the man in charge of Clark County's driver's ed distance learning program and a 27-year driver's education teacher in classrooms prior to that.

Dropping the class

In 1997 the Nevada Legislature passed a statute that prohibited public schools from teaching driver's education before the sophomore year. That change led the Clark County School District to drop the class from its regular curriculum although it continued to be offered as a classroom-only elective at some schools and through the distance learning program using videotapes.

Behind-the-wheel instruction had been eliminated as a cost-saving measure several years earlier. Cars for student driving and the insurance to cover those student drivers was too expensive, district officials said.

Only a handful of Clark County high schools still offer a version of driver's ed as an elective but those courses are classroom instruction only.

Many driver's education teachers and lawmakers argue that you can't really learn to drive correctly without getting experience behind the wheel under the watchful eye of an instructor. They say that should be factored into the graduated license system.

Cegavske said when she took took a semester of driving instruction in school in Minnesota it included behind-the-wheel experience in snow, rain and other bad conditions.

"We were there a long time," she said. "It was not a piece of cake."

Some school officials and principals argue that each school should be allowed to decide whether to offer driver's education.

"It's a great class and we should make it easier for students to get access through summer school and distance education," Jeff Horn, principal of Green Valley High School, said.

But, he added, "with (the federal) No Child Left Behind (Act) the whole push is for preparing students for academics and proficiency exams so electives such as driver's ed are getting more and more difficult to schedule at a comprehensive high school."

Costly operation

A key reason school districts have reacted defensively to the idea of mandated driver's education is the cost that would come with it. School district officials say that setting up driver's education programs at every high school would require $14 million to purchase classroom simulators and would cost $3.3 million to $6.7 million a year to operate.

The Legislature hasn't said whether the state would provide funding for the increased costs that would come with additional driver's education in high schools.

"If it's mandated, it should be funded," said Craig Kadlub, director of government affairs for the Clark County School District.

Assemblywoman Chris Giunchigliani, D-Las Vegas, vice chairwoman of the Assembly Ways and Means Committee, said she is willing to talk about new money for behind-the-wheel training, but she doesn't understand why districts are complaining about providing driver's education in classrooms.

Most schools used to provide it using per-pupil funding, she said, but in Clark County principals were allowed to decide to eliminate the program.

Some legislators argue that individual schools have simply chosen not to fund driver's education, directing the money to other programs.

The Assembly Ways and Means Committee could tell schools they need to simply find the funds, said Assemblyman John Oceguera, D-Las Vegas.

"One question they're going to ask them right off the bat is, what have you been doing with the money currently?" said Oceguera, the chairman of the Assembly Transportation Committee.

Breen said she thinks driver's education could prove useful if done right, but she said cost estimates from school districts likely are "outrageously high."

The bulk of the costs would come from driving simulators, which would cost $3,800 to $6,000 each.

Outfitting a classroom would cost $121,600 to $192,000 per high school, Kadlub said.

On top of that, interest in public driver's education programs has been so low that Nevada now has no training program to certify driver's education teachers, Kadlub said.

Moracco said about 1,700 students sign up for the district's distance learning driver's ed program each year. For $55 students get access to 30 hours of videotaped lectures, starring Moracco, and then sit for an exam. If students don't get at least 70 percent of the final test correct they are allowed to take the class again for free.

Each year about 22,000 of the district's 280,000 students turn 16, which means there's at least 20,000 teenagers who are getting their driver's education somewhere else or not at all.

The possibility that they are not getting any driver's education before getting out on the road and the fact that so many teen drivers are involved in fatal traffic collisions in Nevada are the reasons why proponents of the graduated driver's license bills are optimistic that they will succeed this time.

"The public policy behind it is to get our kids better prepared for the public roads and highways," said Horne. And that, as Cegavske has said for years, will save lives.

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