The happy proof

A study from a valuable UNC-Chapel Hill research center finds that graduated licenses have saved young drivers

Canadian signer Anne Murray once warbled, "We sure could use/a little good news/today." So how's this for government action probably succeeding beyond anyone's imagination: North Carolina's graduated driver's license program, which is 10 years old this year, can be credited with dramatic reductions in accidents involving the youngest drivers, in hospitalizations and in fatalities.

An article to be published in a professional journal, Traffic Injury Prevention, comes out of the Highway Safety Research Center at UNC-Chapel Hill and offers some heartening statistics: In the first four years after the state's graduated licensing went into effect, hospitalizations of the youngest drivers were reduced by a third. An earlier report showed fatalities down by roughly half. Accidents were down as well. These figures don't necessarily signal that teenagers have become better drivers, but the graduated system has meant they're driving less at 16, which helps.

Some teens probably don't like the system. A learner's permit allows young people behind the wheel with an adult riding with them. But rather than receiving full driving privileges at 16, kids have to progress, without traffic violations, for at least six months. There are other requirements on the path to full licensure, involving the hours when young people may drive and the number of other teenagers who may be in the car. When the law took effect in December of 1997, it was a profound gift that many parents probably weren't aware they were getting.

Now, a decade later, the proof is clear.

Dr. Lewis Margolis, lead author of the article and a physician and an associate professor in UNC-CH's School of Public Health, said, "These results show dramatic improvement in the rate of injury among young drivers, which is excellent news. In addition, the savings in hospital and medical costs are significant."

It was common sense all along. Young people in the car at all hours at the age of 16 is not a good prospect for them or anyone else. There are so many pressures to speed, to carry others, to take trips to the beach on a whim. And though it's important to say that many young people are responsible drivers, maybe more responsible than others with years of experience, youngsters tend to be easily distracted. Also, their judgment hasn't really had a chance to mature.

Some get through the period of their teenage driving years with no problems, while others have a minor accident that serves as a lesson to them. But it seems that almost every community suffers the horror of losing a young person or sometimes more than one to a traffic accident. That is an experience that changes family members forever.

The success of the graduated license program -- now just take it easy, everybody -- probably should prompt some more research to see if lengthening the steps to a full license even further, perhaps even raising the eligible age, would be worth considering.

This, after all, is not about convenience or "rights" for teenagers or upholding familiar customs. For too many young people in too many sad, sad, families, driving a car became a matter of life and death. If there are things still to be done that can save lives and prevent injuries, then the government that wisely chose the course of graduated driver's licenses ought to do them.