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CNN Live Saturday
Greatly Elevated Crash Risk for Younger Drivers
Aired August 25, 2001 - 17:21 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
STEPHEN FRAZIER, CNN ANCHOR: Back to school time around the country. For most students that means climbing on to a school bus, but for an awful lot it means packing into the family car to get to school. And now, those behind the wheel are often teenagers. Federal highway officials say that is now a big concern because there is a greatly elevated crash risk for younger drivers.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says teen drivers are four times as likely to crash as all other drivers. Fourteen teens are killed in accidents every day in the United States and 38 percent of all deaths among 16 to 19 year-olds in 1998 -- that is the last year we have numbers for them -- occurred in driving accidents. To discuss these depressing trends we are joined now Sean McLaurin of that government agency known as NHTSA. Mr. McLaurin, thanks tore joining us.
SEAN MCLAURIN, NATIONAL HIGHWAY TRANSPORTATION AND SAFETY ADMINISTRATION: Thank you, Steven.
FRAZIER: You studied this especially in light of the graduated licensing programs, so you've been focusing on young people for many years now. Let's talk about them. It is a stunning figure. Is it just that they don't have mastery of the car yet at the age of 16?
MCLAURIN: Well Stephen, the problem existing because we have a very complicated task. With a very complicated task you have a very elongated apprenticeship period. So what you've got is inexperience, physical and mental immaturity, and you've got a tendency towards high risk taking behavior. Those combine sometimes for fatal results.
FRAZIER: And the task is getting more complicated because of the way we pursue driving in this country, isn't it? With the radio on and with friends in the next seat jabbering away and maybe a cell phone going?
MCLAURIN: Absolutely. The cabin of the car now is becoming a high-tech center. When you've got a young driver that is technically naive and you've got other teenagers in the car, you've just got a formula for disaster just waiting to happen.
FRAZIER: When you say "technically naive," is that fair? I know you have studied other nations, travelled to them. Are you saying that in other countries young people are technically more mature or are technically march accomplished, are better drivers? MCLAURIN: No. In other countries when you have a young driver start to drive, they always are going to have a higher crash rate, Stephen, because any new task that is so complicated is going to take a long time to master.
A carpenter, a pianist, a car, an F-14 pilot. They have got some time where they have got to have lots of supervision and lots of time to practice.
FRAZIER: Is that, though, what we're doing or are we loosing untrained youngsters on the road in projectiles that they don't know how to control?
MCLAURIN: In the past, that's what we did. We would give them about 30 hours of classroom training, put them six hours in a car and hope that that was enough training. With our roads becoming more and more crowded, the cars are becoming more complicated, and it is becoming a lot more crowded in the car, the teenagers just need a lot more training and graduated drivers licensing seems to be the answer to this problem.
FRAZIER: How much more training would you recommend?
MCLAURIN: Well, you know, it is, I would say, take this apprenticeship period and stretch it out over a year and a half or two years. I would tell parents that you have got to put your children in a car for a minimum of 50 hours, ten hours of which are at night.
FRAZIER: And is that something the parents could supervise or would you want to have a driving professional supervising during that time?
MCLAURIN: Well a little of both. I mean, you have a driving professional that will give them the technical basics and then you have got a parent who is everyday in the house with the child. And you could put them in the car any time you've got to run a task. A teenager has to learn hundreds of different situations in a car, all kinds of different weather, all kinds of different roads, with and without passengers.
So 50 hours is what we consider at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration a minimal of time in a car.
FRAZIER: Let me make this last question very brief because we have to go, you have to recommend those to the states. Any states taking you up on that?
MCLAURIN: Thirty-four states have enacted graduated drivers licensing law since 1996. And the results have been tremendously positive.
FRAZIER: We'll that's good to know. We're grateful for those insights tonight. Sean Mclaurin, thank you for joining us.
MCLAURIN: Thank you
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