Filed under: Trends
New California driving laws for teens in 2006
The Automobile Club of Southern California has reported the passage of AB
1474. Effective January 1st, 2006, the new law mandates that all teen drivers must have their license for one year before they can drive between the hours of 11:00 P.M. through 5 A.M. or have young passengers without an adult present in the vehicle.
The development of the law was based on studies of teen driving patterns and safety concerns. "The number of crashes involving California's 16-year-old drivers between 11 p.m. and midnight is nearly 13 percent higher than we would expect when we take into account the amount of driving they do at that hour," said Steven Bloch, Ph.D., the Auto Club's senior research associate who analyzed the California teen crash data.
Note that teens who obtain their license before the 1st still are under the law’s auspices if their license is less than a year old.
Further details can be found here, here and here.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Jim 7:32PM (12/31/2005)
This is a lot like the law Illinois passed that took effect at the beginning of 2005. There was already a curfew for people 16 or under (at least where I live), and the new law mandated that if a person is under the age of 18 and has had their license for less than six months, they could not carry more than one person under the age of 18 at a time. As someone who had to live with the law (although only for five months, I had gotten my license in December 2004), I really had no problem with it. I'll admit it, a lot of people in my age group think that they're expert drivers, when in reality you think every ride with them will be your last.
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Aaron 8:46PM (12/31/2005)
In North Carolina it is when you get your permit you can't drive from 9pm to 5am for the first 6 months. Wen you get your license for the first six months you can't drive from 9-5.
Also First 6 months of permit/license you can only carrry family members & one other person that is not considered " family"
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Ryan 12:36AM (1/01/2006)
It's about time someone took some action. And we wonder why we get so many accidents.
http://www.pixelpixar.com/
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andy 1:27AM (1/01/2006)
I am affected by this. It is unfortunate, and I don't see what good the additional hour off will do (11pm-5am where previously it was midnight-5am). As for the passenger restrictions: they're useless anyways. Everyone breaks them, because they know they can only get caught if pulled over for a traffic violation. So they just speed carefully, make full stops at stop signs, and everything works out fine. This legislation will have little actual impact on teen accident rates.
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Ego 8:51AM (1/01/2006)
andy:
I don't necessarily agree with the law, but your post seems to show that they do have a positive affect on teen driving.
"So they just speed carefully, make full stops at stop signs, and everything works out fine"
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Steve B. 11:02AM (1/01/2006)
"As for the passenger restrictions: they're useless anyways. Everyone breaks them, because they know they can only get caught if pulled over for a traffic violation."
Sounds like spineless, worthless parents to me!
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Damon 2:18PM (1/01/2006)
Just to clarify. These laws have been in affect since 1998.
Secondly, Andy, there has been a 23% (according to DMV) decrease in teen crashes in California since 1998 when these laws were intitially enacted. They are working and I do realize that most of my students don't adhear to them, but it's a step in the right direction, and most have allowed their behavior to be changeds.
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md 4:04PM (1/01/2006)
Virginia has similar laws to this, except the teen cufew is still set at midnight. For the first year you have your license you are only allowed one passenger under the age of eighteen, and for the second year you are only allowed three pasengers under the age of eighteen. Their is also a midnight to 4 am (maybe 5 am) curfew. The curfew and passenger restriction laws are hardly enforced at all, however. the officer will usually only cite you for them if you are being an ass to him during a traffic stop or you did something so stupid that the officer has no choice but to throw the book at you.
Of course what would really low crash rates is if teens actually learned how to drive. It's the parents responsibility and very few parents actually take the time to teach their kids how to drive. I also feel that accident avoidance courses are very important. Anybody can point a car down the road, but hardly any teens have a clue what to do when in an emergency situation.
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kristi 1:21PM (1/03/2006)
I read with interest the article you wrote about teen driving. I am co-owner of a company, Report My Teen.com. We are a safe teen driving program for parents of new teen drivers. Our members receive a bumper sticker and the service that notifies the parent immediately via email if their teen is seen driving recklessly. Our bumper stickers say, Report Unsafe Driving and have a toll free number where the caller can leave a brief voice message that is routed by our computer to the parents designated email. The message is routed as a wav.file, so the parent hears the actual voice message once they click open the email. Our service is currently being used by members all over the United States. We offer a solution to parents who need objective information about how their teen drives when the parent is not with them.
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lauren 1:22AM (1/04/2006)
i believe that the new "laws" you people want to carry out are absolutly obserd. you are inconviencing people to extream extents. do you realise that now that you cant drive with friends if your a teen, the percentage of drunk driving will greatly increase because sober teens wont want to risk there licence privlages. so therefore you just jeopardized thousands of peoples lives. Also i strongly disagree with the fact that we can not vote to decide how our life styles are going to be. and the people who decide this for us dont count considering the fact it does not affect them oh wait yes it does there going to get hit by an underaged drunk driver. and when you see all the news reports of death rates rocketing, i hope you realise that its your fault.
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lauren 1:22AM (1/04/2006)
i believe that the new "laws" you people want to carry out are absolutly obserd. you are inconviencing people to extream extents. do you realise that now that you cant drive with friends if your a teen, the percentage of drunk driving will greatly increase because sober teens wont want to risk there licence privlages. so therefore you just jeopardized thousands of peoples lives. Also i strongly disagree with the fact that we can not vote to decide how our life styles are going to be. and the people who decide this for us dont count considering the fact it does not affect them oh wait yes it does there going to get hit by an underaged drunk driver. and when you see all the news reports of death rates rocketing, i hope you realise that its your fault.
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lauren 1:23AM (1/04/2006)
i believe that the new "laws" you people want to carry out are absolutly obserd. you are inconviencing people to extream extents. do you realise that now that you cant drive with friends if your a teen, the percentage of drunk driving will greatly increase because sober teens wont want to risk there licence privlages. so therefore you just jeopardized thousands of peoples lives. Also i strongly disagree with the fact that we can not vote to decide how our life styles are going to be. and the people who decide this for us dont count considering the fact it does not affect them oh wait yes it does there going to get hit by an underaged drunk driver. and when you see all the news reports of death rates rocketing, i hope you realise that its your fault.
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lauren 1:23AM (1/04/2006)
i believe that the new "laws" you people want to carry out are absolutly obserd. you are inconviencing people to extream extents. do you realise that now that you cant drive with friends if your a teen, the percentage of drunk driving will greatly increase because sober teens wont want to risk there licence privlages. so therefore you just jeopardized thousands of peoples lives. Also i strongly disagree with the fact that we can not vote to decide how our life styles are going to be. and the people who decide this for us dont count considering the fact it does not affect them oh wait yes it does there going to get hit by an underaged drunk driver. and when you see all the news reports of death rates rocketing, i hope you realise that its your fault.
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lauren 1:24AM (1/04/2006)
i believe that the new "laws" you people want to carry out are absolutly obserd. you are inconviencing people to extream extents. do you realise that now that you cant drive with friends if your a teen, the percentage of drunk driving will greatly increase because sober teens wont want to risk there licence privlages. so therefore you just jeopardized thousands of peoples lives. Also i strongly disagree with the fact that we can not vote to decide how our life styles are going to be. and the people who decide this for us dont count considering the fact it does not affect them oh wait yes it does there going to get hit by an underaged drunk driver. and when you see all the news reports of death rates rocketing, i hope you realise that its your fault.
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Pirate 11:10PM (1/04/2006)
Auto Club's SENIOR research associate who analyzed the California teen crash data.
Old people hate teens.They aren't taking other factors into consideration. They changed the law.. but wont it be more dangerous when 10 or 15 cars with one person in each car go down the road all going to the same place? Sure the teens might be more protected but what about other people on the road. Also, who voted on this new law? Was it even broght up to vote on?
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mercedes 6:44PM (1/10/2006)
Okay. Lauren has a point (although miss-spelled): as a teen I can tell you that we DO get drunk, and we ARE forced to find some way home. If everyone under the age of 17, which is generally the age of people at these parties, can't or refuse to drive anyone under the influence of alcohol home, because they passed some dumb f*ck law, these teens will try to drive themselves home. When you are under the influence of alcohol, such an idea doesn't seem so bad when faced with the promise of punishment by your parents if you don't return home on curfew. This law is the sh*ttiest thing I have ever seen. What about all those elderly people who can't drive? Those 70-somethings who can't see the bummer of the car 10 feet in front of them? I don't see you taking away their licences, and they cause many accidents; my own grsndfather, whom I love to death, is over 70 and has been in two crashes in two years. Every teen will simply end up breaking this law anyway, so I suppose it doesn't matter much - but I just wanted to alert the old, decrepit people who propose these laws to their stupidity.
Please tell me if you agree.
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alan 11:03PM (1/26/2006)
mercedes seems to have the same feelings as me. this law will only affect me for about 2 more weeks, but has anyone thought that MAYBE so many accidents happened between 11 - 12 was because kids were being reckless trying to get home before 12? I could be completely wrong, but i havent ACTUALLy seen this data (if anyone knows where to find it thatd be nice). Anyways, pushing the driving age back doesnt make someone less reckless or a better driver, as the saying goes "Practices makes perfect", teens need to learn to deal with distractions and learn to drive, a 25 year old new driver is just as bad as a 16 year old.
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