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No plans for driving-age hike in Virginia
This summer, Warrenton police responded to 10 accidents in which young drivers were at fault.
“These were reportable accidents, meaning there was more than $1,000 in damages and/or injuries,” Police Chief Connie Novak said. Three of the accidents involved juveniles and seven involved drivers 18 or 19 years old.
New reports indicate that raising the age of eligibility for a driver’s license has potential safety benefits.
“Licensing at later ages would substantially reduce crashes involving teen drivers,” according to the report issued by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS).
Getting a driver’s license at 16 has been a milestone for American teens for the past 95 years. In 1913, New Jersey became the first state to require all drivers to be licensed.
Virginia and Maryland residents must be at least 16 years, 3 months old in order to get a license; the minimum age in Washington is 16-years, 6-months.
The current laws governing the minimum age at which drivers can get learner's permits and licenses in Virginia have been on the books since 2001. There is no evidence that legislators are now seeking to change them.
However, some states are considering raising the minimum age to 17 or even 18, according to the Mid-Atlantic chapter of the AAA.
“Is raising the driving age an idea whose time has come? In the wake of the spate of fatal crashes involving teen drivers in our area last October and November, the sentiment is probably stronger now [than back in 1999],” said Triple-A Mid-Atlantic spokesman Lon Anderson.
When the organization conducted a survey nine years ago, 68 percent of licensed drivers in the region favored raising the minimum driving age to 17, Anderson said. Only 23 percent were opposed.
Studies and statistics show that young, inexperienced drivers are at significant risk of being involved in a fatal crash. Motor vehicle crashes are the number-one cause of death for American teens, and approximately 1,000 16-year-old drivers are involved in fatal crashes each year.
In 2005 alone, 7,500 drivers between the ages of 15 and 20 were involved in fatal car crashes nationwide.
Consequently, the IIHS maintains increasing the driving age is a “logical next step” to improving safety for young drivers.
All 50 states and the District of Columbia have already implemented graduated driver licensing laws. There are different types of GDL programs. A typical three-stage program includes a “learner stage,” in which all driving must be supervised; an intermediate stage in which unsupervised driving is allowed with certain exceptions; and full unrestricted licensure.
“Previous studies including a landmark study by the IIHS have shown that the fatal crash rate for 16-year-old drivers has declined sharply after states began enacting graduated licensing in the 1990s,” said John B. Townsend, Triple-A Mid-Atlantic’s manager of public and government affairs.
GDL programs mean fewer teens are getting their licenses at 16, he added.
E-mail the reporter: abogdanovic@timespapers.com
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