Bucks
Teen Driving
Dear Friends,
Good morning. For more than four years, State Representative Katherine Watson (R-144th District) has pushed for tighter teen-driver laws. “Watson says that her colleagues have derided her as a hysterical mother,” the Inquirer reported (Dec. 22).
I thought of her as I read the Inquirer’s lead editorial on New Years Day. “In recent weeks, six Philadelphia-area teens have perished in three car crashes,” it read. “Over a decade, the death toll has reached nearly 400 drivers and 600 passengers and other motorists.”
Why hasn’t the legislature changed the rules for teen drivers?
I asked Theresa Podguski, the Director of Public Affairs at AAA East Penn, for an answer. “Unfortunately, the hazards of teen driving is a lower priority with the legislature than the budget and table [gambling] games,” she replied.
State legislators know that a teen driving with one teen passenger doubles the risk of a crash. Two or more teen passengers create four to five times the risk as compared with driving alone. Podguski pointed me to a frightening Johns Hopkins University study. The odds of a 16 year old dying in a car with a teen driver increases to 182 percent with three or more teen passengers.
She told me that Pennsylvania is one of eight states that have no passenger restrictions for teen drivers. That’s a dubious distinction. Podguski also noted that the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration states that motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for 15 to 20 year olders.
Dr. Flaura Koplin Winston is the Scientific Director for the Center for Injury Research and Prevention at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. “Three years after California enacted limits on passengers for teen drivers, crash fatalities among teen passengers declined 25 percent” she wrote for the Inquirer (Jan. 3).
Why is Pennsylvania so out of step?
Kathy Watson’s bill (H.B. 289) was languishing in the state legislature. It would have limited drivers under the age of 18 from transporting more than one passenger. Family members residing at the same address would be excluded from the rule.
Her bill has been rewritten into House Bill 67. Watson says that the Assembly actually passed the bill. It awaits action in the Senate Transportation Committee. Watson has hopes that the teen restrictions will become law in 2010. Let us pray.
It’s difficult for me to understand why any adult would object to this bill. But Watson told me that she’s heard from people who object to the government imposing regulations on private behavior. It must be a cultural heritage thing. Watson explained those beliefs by phrasing what objectors tell her: “I don’t want the government in my life.”
On the other hand, Watson believes that government can be a useful backstop for parents. She also says that the bill awaiting passage in the state senate would require 15 additional hours of experienced driving for juniors. Ten hours of night driving and five hours of inclement weather driving would become the rule.
While we wait for the legislature to act, there is something that adults can do. “Parents and families are the first line of defense,” Dr. Flaura Koplin Winston added. “A study we published in September in “Pediatrics” [Magazine] found that teens whose parents set clear rules and boundaries, while offering lots of support, were half as likely to crash compared with teens who said their parents were less involved.”
Unfortunately, most parents are unaware of crash risk for younger teens. That was the message, which AAA Traveler magazine gave last year (January/February 2009). Podguski told me that AAA East Penn has an answer.
“Bare to Prepare” is a free workshop for parents and their pre permit teens, she said. The workshop rotates between its offices in Allentown, Bethlehem, Lansdale, and Pottstown.
Quite frankly, I don’t hold my breath when it comes to high expectations from the Pennsylvania legislature.
Some of my most favorite topics have been waiting for legislative action for years. For example, why do we have more than 2,600 municipalities in Pennsylvania? Because the legislature didn’t have the guts to reduce them as it did when it consolidated the 2,600 school districts into 501 during the early 1950’s. The Bucks County members of the State House of Representatives and Senate understand full well that Bucks County doesn’t need 54 separate municipalities. Wouldn’t 13 be better? That’s the number of school districts in Bucks County. Why should the Quakertown school district have six municipalities within its borders?
Which Bucks County legislator will be the first to suggest consolidation of municipalities?
Here’s another of my peeves.
In July 2005, the Philadelphia Grand Jury criticized the Philadelphia Archdiocese for its unwillingness to identify and expel pedophile priests. The Pennsylvania Legislature responded to the Grand Jury report by introducing two bills, which would have opened the statute of limitations window so victims could press their claims.
Those bills have gotten nowhere.
Some blame the Archdiocese of Philadelphia for opposing the bills. The Archdiocese obviously worries about holding onto its assets. When California opened its statute of limitations window, it cost the Los Angeles Archdiocese $600 million in sex abuse settlements.
Other lobbies believe that school districts won’t support similar bills either. They are concerned that past teachers’ actions could expose school districts to sex abuse suits as well.
Was Komme Du (What can we do?), the Pennsylvania Germans often say?
Here’s a start…term limits. But as the Pa. Dutch often add, “We get too soon old and too late smart.”
Sincerely,
Charles Meredith
Sincerely,
Charles Meredith