AAA Mid-Atlantic is urging Pennsylvania lawmakers to support House Bill 67 to impose tougher licensing requirements for teenage drivers.
AAA says that 13 young drivers in the Philadelphia area died in 2007, the most recent years statistics are available.
Bucks County had the most fatalities with 6, followed by Chester County with 4, Philadelphia County with 2 and Montgomery County with 1. No fatalities involving teen drivers were reported in Delaware County.
The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation reported 101 fatalities and 9,726 crashes involving 16- and 17-year-old drivers in 2007.
Car crashes remain the leading cause of deaths among 16- to 19-year-olds, says Catherine L. Rossi, AAA Mid-Atlantic Manager of Public and Government Affairs.
"Young drivers are injuring or killing themselves and others," Rossi said. "We have to do something to prevent teen crashes. AAA is calling on lawmakers to pass a stronger teen driving law in Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania lags far behind neighboring states when it comes to its teen driving law."
AAA is backing House Bill 67, Rossi said, because it believes the measure would: prevent junior drivers from driving with more than one passenger under age 18;
require more hours of driving experience including 10 hours of nighttime and five hours of inclement weather driving; prohibit the use of interactive wireless communications devices.
Under current state law, a Pennsylvania teen driver can have as many passengers are there are seatbelts in the vehicle, Rossi said. They aren't required to get driving experience at night or during inclement weather, she added.
Also, teen drivers are not prohibited from talking on the cell phone or texting when driving – which many do, Rossi said.
Support for passenger restrictions is overwhelming, according to AAA, with 39 states and the District of Columbia enacting passenger and nighttime driving restrictions for young drivers.
In a recent AAA poll of Pennsylvania members, 96 percent said they would support legislation that prohibited more than one teen passenger when a teen driver is behind the wheel, Rossi said.
While critics argue that passenger restriction laws will put more teens on the road, studies have shown that with a reduced number of passengers, each of those teen drivers is a safer driver, she said.
So far, 18 states and the District of Columbia have cell phone restrictions for young drivers, according to AAA.
Young drivers' per-mile fatality rate is four-times that of adults, AAA says.
A study released last year by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety in conjunction with researchers at Johns Hopkins found that 16-year-old drivers are involved in 38 percent fewer fatal crashes and 40 percent fewer injury crashes if their state has a GDL program with at least five of seven common components, according to AAA.
"AAA believes that young drivers should be able to keep their mind on one thing: driving," Rossi said.
For more about AAA, visit its Web site, www.aaamidatlantic.com
1 comment:
Please - lets pull together and contact our State Representative's and show our support for HB -67. Think of all teens that have lost there lives due to inexperiance teen driving. Teens don't realize the huge power they hold behind the wheel of a veicle
My daughter Lacey became a statistic on April 28,2007, the night of her senior prom. HB-67 addresses many of the circumstances that took my Laceys life. A car load of teens talking, singing, excited to reach there destination, none of them were wearing there seatbelts!! Now I have to live without my beautiful daughter who had such a promising future, Also the consequences that could of been avoided for the rest of my life. I firmly believe this piece of legislation can save many lifes.
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