Illinois: With a 9-month learning period, teen driving deaths plunge
Since January of 2008, Illinois teen drivers must wait 9 months to get their driver's license. New drivers must wait a year before they can have more than one teenage passenger in the car.
The new laws appear to be working. According to new statistics, the death rate of Illinois teens between the ages of 16 and 19 who have died in car crashes has declined more than 40% in 2008 to 92 deaths, compared to 155 in 2007
People killed in driving deaths in 2008 fell by 20%, which may be due to fewer people driving because of high gas prices. But the decrease in teen deaths is a more dramatic decline.
New laws require teen drivers to spend more time practicing on the road while in driver's ed programs. It als requires that a teen driver who receives a moving violation must appear in court with a parent or guardian to get court-supervision. A 2007 change in the laws requires teen drivers to spend more time driving with a parent before being able to get a license-to 50 hours of behind the wheel.
Michael Hionis, the Taft HIgh School driver education director, says he likes the changes made in the laws. It forces teenage drivers to drive in different seasons of the year which prepares them for potentially bad driving conditions come winter.
Hionis believes teen driver's take driving more seriously but also believes they have more distractions, particularly electronic ones.
"The text messaging phenomenon has gotten out of control," Hionis said. "You can't multi-task well. Driving is something very important that you have to single task to be successful."
