Safer teen driving ahead

Safer teen driving ahead?

Posted by the Asbury Park Press on 11/20/07

COLTS NECK — Teen-age drivers made some of the toughest suggestions — and shared their heartbreak over losing friends in fatal crashes — at the Governor's Teen Driver Study Commission's first public hearing at the high school Monday night.

Points made by the more than 100 people present included:

Road tests for new drivers are too easy.

Law enforcement is often lax.

Teenagers themselves are best able to get the safety message across to other teen drivers.

"Modifications must be made. Make the road test more difficult, extend the length of driver instruction," said Freehold High School senior Samantha Patino, 17. "We've created our own driver program, the Project Lundy."

Patino was one of several Freehold High students who created the Lundy project, in which 20 juniors and seniors talk to sophomores in driver's education classes about how a Jan. 10 fatal crash — which claimed the lives of students Michael Dragonetti, James Warnock and Andrew Lundy, as well as Ruth MacArthur, 68, of Old Bridge — affected them.

"We speak peer to peer — we tell them it can happen to them," Patino said.

The 16-member commission will make recommendations to Gov. Corzine in March on how to reduce teen driver crashes and fatalities. Among issues for the commission to consider are ways to identify vehicles being driven by pro-visional drivers, who must abide by restrictions on night driving and how many other teenagers they're allowed to carry.

Monday was the first of three public hearings; two more are scheduled in northern and southern counties.

Neil Reyes, a senior at Freehold High School, told the commission that teen to teen is the best way to get the message out.

"There's been a lot of talk about different legislation and laws to prevent accidents from happening, which I think is great, but it's ineffective if students don't understand their reasoning behind it," Reyes said. "Had I not lost my friend Andrew (Lundy), I may not have paid attention."

Teens tend to tune out programs that rely on videos, lectures by police or other authority figures, Reyes said.

"I learned from my friend's accident. Project Lundy takes that one accident and shares that experience," Reyes said. "We reach them on a personal level, so they understand the reasons behind the legislation."

He suggested students who have their driver's licenses should help present information to younger teens getting their permits.

Other suggestions from parents and teens included a better road test and stickers to identify provisional drivers to police and other motorists. Assemblywoman Amy Handlin, R-Monmouth, said she plans to introduce a bill next week to require such a sticker.

"Give teens a real road test on a real street — not on a back lot at the DMV — and fail a few," said Deborah Bao of Middletown, who proposed raising the age at which teens may get a full license.

Commission Chairwoman Pam Fischer, director of the state Division of Highway Safety, said increasing the age to 18 to get a full license is not being considered.

Two parents, speaking separately, suggested that parents should face punishment if their teenagers are caught violating provisional license rules.

Bill Scott of Holmdel suggested that parents be fined $1,000 and receive one motor vehicle point if their provisional teen driver is caught with too many other teens in the car. The teen would then lose his or her license for three months.

Barry DuBrosky of Freehold Township, who lost his sister, Christine, at age 26 to a fatal crash involving a teen driver, said provisional drivers shouldn't be allowed to plea bargain if issued a summons, should make a mandatory court appearance with their parents and repeat offenders should be required to take remedial courses.

The commission was formed in the wake of several fatal accidents in 2007, including the fatal crash on Jan. 10 in Freehold Township and a March accident in Jackson that killed two teens.

The most recent such accident occurred Friday when Amanda Policastro, 17, a senior at Pinelands Regional High School in Little Egg Harbor, died in a crash on the Garden State Parkway in Stafford while a passenger in another teen's car.

The commission will make short- and long-term recommendations; some may require legislation, others may not, Fischer said.

One such idea would only take a letter from the state attorney general directing municipal prosecutors to adopt a "zero-tolerance" policy for offenses by provisional drivers, meaning that no charges are dropped or bargained to lesser offenses, said William Margaretta, New Jersey State Safety Council executive director.