Teen researchers examine graduated driver's license

By: Katie Mastoris and Kristen Cucinotta
Date: 2000-08-18

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The authors are 13 year old middle school students from Westampton, New Jersey, USA. They participated in the Research Offered for Gifted And Talented Education (R.O.G.A.T.E.) program and received a Bronze Award. They were required to create a hypothesis, conduct research, and then make a 12 minute presentation on their findings to a panel of judges, either proving or disproving the hypothesis.

Congratulations to Kristen and Katie from Drivers.com! We hope you continue to examine these issues.

Why do kids dream of the day they will turn seventeen? Seventeen is the magic age when they will get their driver's license. Teenagers have been fantasizing about the dream car they have always wanted. Well, that all may soon change. Teenagers just might be waiting a little longer to get their full privileged driver's licenses.

We, like so many of our peers, are anxiously awaiting our driving privileges. We decided to research the subject of the New Graduated Driver's License. The hypothesis we set out to prove or disprove was: The changing of the traditional license law to the Graduated License Law will not have any effect on accidents in a given year .

The Graduated Driver's License would still enable New Jersey teenagers to obtain their permit at the age of sixteen, but full license privileges would not go into effect until the age of eighteen. At age seventeen, the number of unrelated people driving in the car with you as the licensed driver would be limited, as would driving between the hours of midnight and five in the morning.

Our research included visiting many web sites and reading a lot of magazine and newspaper articles, including summaries about a young teenage boy who was killed in an accident from either stupidity or anger. Both LIFE Magazine and Time Magazine gave statistics on the number of accidents caused by teenage drivers and included data on the time of day the accidents occurred. The articles showed that even hard working, responsible teens with good grades were often the cause of accidents and were sometimes ticketed for their driving mistakes. Only a few of the web sites we visited discussed the new Graduated Drivers License Law, but those that did indicated they believed that the number of accidents and deaths would most likely be reduced. We sent out many letters, questionnaires, and e-mails to experts in the field, as well as to parents, new drivers, and experienced elderly drivers. We asked them what age group they believed cause the most accidents and why they think that age group causes the most accidents.

The Minnesota Department of Public Safety sent us books filled with charts and statistics supporting our hypothesis for the years 1997 and 1998. We also received statistics and charts from the American Coalition for Traffic Safety in Virginia supporting our hypothesis that the Graduated License Law would not reduce the number of deaths. Although three of our six primary resources agreed with our hypothesis, the other three did not.

Most of the research we gathered stated that teens, elders, and males cause most of the accidents. As you can see in the following charts, the results of our surveys show that most people believe 15 - 19 year old drivers cause the most accidents, and this is mainly due to inexperience.

The time of day that crashes occur is another huge reason why states are moving in the direction of the Graduated License Law. The chart below shows that most accidents occur between noon and five o'clock in the afternoon.

Source: Minnesota Motor Vehicle Crash Facts Table 1.28

According to the above chart, between the time of 11 p.m. and 5 a.m., when the graduated license law bans teens from driving, the least amount of accidents occur. Why would legislators ban teens during a time when the least amounts of accidents occur?

In conclusion, we have found information to both prove and disprove our hypothesis: The changing of the traditional license law to the Graduated Driver's License Law will not have any effect on accidents in a given year . Therefore, our hypothesis was inconclusive. All drivers must understand and obey the laws of the road. If not, there will surely be many more restrictions in the years to come.

However, even if the Graduated License Law is not in effect when we become eligible for our driver's licenses, we are certain that our parents will be instituting a "Graduated Driver's License" of their own. We know they will not allow us to drive beyond 11 o'clock at night and will not allow us to have more than one other person in the car at any time. So whenever the new system is put into effect, perhaps there will not be as much impact as predicted.

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