Stricter Laws for Newly Licensed Drivers

Teenage drivers have the highest accident rates of any other age group on the road. The combination of their inexperience, immaturity, and high risk-taking leads to thousands of accidents, injuries, and deaths each year. In an effort to combat this problem, some states are creating stricter driving laws for these young, newly licensed drivers.

Michigan, one of the latest states to toughen-up their driving laws for teens, will enact new constraints this March. Their restrictions will follow in the footsteps of several other states, such as Illinois, Connecticut, and New York, by imposing an earlier curfew and limiting the number of teen passengers they are allowed to have. New teen drivers will only be allowed to have one non-family related passenger under the age of 20 in the vehicle with them, unless accompanied by a parent, guardian, or another adult who is 21 or older, and has been approved by the teen’s parents. Young drivers will also be banned from driving between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. However, there are exceptions to these rules when the driver is traveling for work or school purposes.

The purpose of laws such as these is to remove the factors that often lead to accidents. The more teens that are present in a young driver’s car, the more likely that driver is to participate in risky driving behaviors, such as not wearing a seatbelt, playing loud music, speeding, and getting distracted. The curfew will be in place to get inexperienced drivers off the road during the most dangerous hours. During this time, it is dark, visibility is bad, and other high-risk drivers, such as those who are tired or drunk, are most likely to be present.

Although Michigan joins a small number of states enacting these restrictions, changes may soon be coming for teen drivers in other states if these laws are effective. And so far, it looks as though they are. According to Connecticut, after imposing tougher restrictions on new drivers the number of teens involved in fatal crashes was reduced by 62%, while in Illinois, the number of teen-driving deaths dropped from 146 to 71.