By Steve Hendrix
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, December 2, 2007

Teenagers howled, and even many parents complained when the tough new driving rules took effect: Teen drivers by the hundreds were barred from the roads after they were caught speeding, racing, driving recklessly, even using fake ID cards to buy alcohol.

But the din in Georgia quieted down once the results became clear. The controversial teen licensing law, one of the most restrictive in the country at the time, led to a dramatic drop in fatalities. Recent studies by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and Emory University found that Georgia's highway death toll for 16-year-old drivers fell by almost 40 percent in the five years since the law was enacted.

As the Washington region deals with the death of 13 teenagers on suburban roads in little more than a month, highway officials, elected leaders and parents are looking around the country for solutions. Georgia's notable success has caught their attention.

"That kind of reduction is monumental, an absolute sea change," said Peter Moe, who coordinates young-driver safety programs for the Maryland State Highway Administration. "We're heading in the right direction in Maryland, but there are things we can, and absolutely should, do to tweak our [licensing requirements]."

Moe was among dozens of state and local officials attending a highway safety summit Friday outside of Baltimore where teen driving was a hot topic. Eight of the nine crashes involving teen drivers in Washington suburbs, and 12 of the 13 fatalities, have been in Maryland.

Georgia lawyer Jimmy Skipper was a state representative 10 years ago when a similar string of high-profile crashes, including two wrecks that killed seven teenagers in suburban Cobb County, created a groundswell to do something about rookie drivers. The result was a law that set new rules, with tough consequences.

"The kids didn't appreciate it very much, and some of the parents came in to fuss at me when little Johnny lost his license," said Skipper, a lawyer who pushed the legislation in the state house. "But I think everyone sees now how well it worked."

Like Georgia, Maryland, Virginia and other states have adopted graduated license programs, granting drivers more independence only as they pass a series of probationary stages. Georgia, like Maryland, requires more time driving with adult supervision, restricts the number of passengers in the car and forbids driving after midnight.

But according to researchers, the Georgia law goes further in two key ways. It denies full freedom to drivers until they are 18. For example, no driver younger than 18 can have more than three underage friends in the car, which one official called the "double-date threshold."

More importantly, it is quick to impose the ultimate punishment on teens caught driving badly, a suspended license. Any teen going 25 mph over the speed limit, for example, is barred from the road for six months.

In the first three months, as many as 300 teenagers in Cobb County had their licenses yanked, according to published reports.

"That's the part that had the biggest impact," said Art Kellerman, a professor of emergency medicine and public health at Emory and lead author of a study of Georgia's program published last year. "If you get caught doing the really stupid things that teenagers do, you can kiss your license goodbye, no exceptions. Your mom and dad are back to schlepping you to McDonald's and school. I think the word of mouth, the humiliation, probably did as much as anything to make this credible among young people."

A spate of fatal accidents in late 2004, several of them in Montgomery County, spurred the Maryland legislature to add the nighttime curfew and forbid teen drivers from carrying passengers younger than 18 who are not immediate family members during their first five months of driving, unless an adult is in the car. Teens are also barred from using cellphones behind the wheel in their first two years of driving.

Virginia banned cellphone use by drivers under 18 this year and has a curfew and passenger restrictions in place. The District does not permit drivers of any age to use handheld cellphones while driving.

Maryland State Highway Administrator Neil Pederson said that the preliminary data on the latest laws were promising. Even before they took effect, teenage road fatalities were down by 6 percent between 2001 and 2005, according to state figures.

Moe said it was up to the legislature to change the law. But as a traffic safety expert, he listed three things he would like to see added to Maryland's program: a longer period during which beginners cannot drive with underage friends in the car; a 10 p.m. start to the nighttime driving curfew instead of midnight; and Georgia-style punishments for kids caught speeding or driving recklessly.

Those punishments proved controversial as soon as young Georgia drivers began losing their right to drive, said Skipper, the former legislator. He heard complaints from parents, some of whom had been waiting for years to be given a break from driving their kids. But attempts to overturn or weaken the law in subsequent years failed as the number of teen fatalities dropped.

"Every year, we're saving the equivalent of a couple of glee clubs," Kellerman said. "That shut those efforts down very quickly."

Like their Georgia counterparts a decade ago, Maryland lawmakers said their constituents are clamoring for change.

"It's all I'm hearing about right now," said Sen. Roy P. Dyson, a Southern Maryland Democrat from St. Mary's County who has long pushed for more restrictions on young Maryland drivers. He expects a range of proposals to come up in the next session, including giving police authority to pull over a car if they suspect there are too many underage passengers with a young driver. Now, officers can check for such license infractions only after they stop a driver for other reasons.

Dyson doesn't see much support for his plan to protect young drivers: Make them wait longer to get their licenses.

"I would vote tomorrow to raise the driving age to 18," he said. "When I say that to a classroom full of kids, you can hear a pin drop."