Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
Kim Johnson ReportingUtah teens are more likely to die or become injured in car accidents than from any other cause. Despite efforts to help them be safer drivers, they remain risky on the road.
Utah lawmakers adopted the Graduated Driver Licensing system six years ago to lessen the risks for these young drivers. How effective is it? A new study out of the University of Utah says it's barely making a dent.
Under the system new drivers are restricted from driving at night. They're required to wear seatbelts and complete 30 hours of practice driving with an adult driver. And for the first six months after a teen gets a license, she may only have passengers in the vehicle if there's an adult driver in the front seat.
Researchers say since the system became law here, teen crash rates have only dropped five percent. It’s rather disappointing news when compared with other states which have seen twenty to twenty-five percent declines in teen related crashes.
Lisa Hyde, University of Utah Researcher: “According to our evaluation, it didn’t appear that graduated licensing was being enforced.”
Hyde says during a six-year period Utah authorities only cited five teens for violating licensure restrictions, and cited only 45 teens for not wearing seatbelts.
Lisa Hyde: “I think other states’ public health officials have really gone after this as an approach to decrease crashes, whereas in our state we just kind of implement laws and I don’t know if it’s been enforced or even looked at.”
Hyde says in other states, teens who violate any stage of the graduated licensing process have to repeat their driving classes. Utah teens don't. Hyde says exceptions to the law, which allow teens to skirt restrictions if they're driving to work, or a religious or school activity, reduce its effectiveness. And she says Utah teens are allowed to drive much later at night that their counterparts in other states.
Lisa Hyde: “In a lot of states they have the nighttime restrictions from 9:99 to 5:00 in the morning, during nighttime hours when teenagers are the most dangerous. Where in Utah we only have it from midnight to 5:00 a.m., which isn’t capturing that many of the nighttime drivers.”
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety rated Utah's GDLl system "fair" last year.
