Passenger Limitations and Graduated Driver Licensing in Utah

Introduction

As one of the original CODES states, Utah CODES has had a variety of successes from our linkages of crash-related databases. To date, research on our linked data has resulted in twelve published peer-reviewed papers, with several more in development. Our data have been used for presentations at national meetings, such as the Transportation Research Board, the Traffic Records Forum, and the American Public Health Association. We have also been able to share our linked data with local traffic safety organizations for public service announcements and to support Safe Community projects. Yet, some of Utah CODES’s greatest successes have occurred at the legislative level. Our direct participation with the legislature began with the Legislative Task Force on Traffic Safety in 1998 and culminated with the passage of Senate Bill 48, Passenger Limitations for Young Drivers in 2001.

Background

In 1997, a graduated licensing bill was brought before the Utah Legislature, which would have restricted passengers and driving hours for teenage drivers as well as required every person in a teen’s car to wear a seatbelt. However, as reported in the Salt Lake Tribune, “Lawmakers … felt it was an intrusion on parental responsibilities.” After hearing from the Legislative Task Force, opinions of legislators began to change. In the 1999 and 2000 legislative sessions various aspects of a graduated driver licensing system were passed. These elements included nighttime driving restrictions and a minimum number hours a teen must drive with an adult before being allowed to drive alone. While these bills addressed problem areas for teen drivers, they ignored the most important issue facing teen drivers -- their passengers.

Data Analysis

Crash Data

Our crash data revealed some alarming statistics about teenage drivers and their passengers. For instance, we found that the majority of passengers in cars driven by sixteen-year-olds (90%) were 16 years of age or younger.  These young passengers only had a seatbelt usage rate of 56% (This compares to a seatbelt usage rate of almost 75% for passengers in cars driven by a person over the age of 24 years.). Thus, it was not surprising that 80% of teens that died in a car crash were in a car with a teenage driver.

In addition to the low seatbelt usage rate by teenage drivers and their passengers, we noticed several other risk factors strongly associated with the presence of passengers. These risk factors were mainly associated with what police officers termed, “exhibition driving.” The odds of a teenage driver receiving a speeding citation, a reckless driving citation or being found at fault in the crash all steadily increased as the number of passengers increased. The most disturbing of these three risk factors was reckless driving. A teenage driver with one passenger was twice as likely to receive a reckless driving citation from a crash compared to a teenager driving alone. However, teenage drivers with five or more passengers were nearly five times more likely to receive a reckless driving citation as a result of their crash than when driving with four or fewer passengers, a trend not observed in adult drivers (Table 1).

 Table 1. Likelihood of a Driver Receiving a Reckless Driving Citation (by age group) with Increasing Number of Passengers

 Linked Data

When our linked data were examined, we found that between the years of 1992 and 1996 over $10 million was spent on hospital inpatient charges for occupants of vehicles with teenager drivers aged 15 – 17 years. Emergency department data for 1996 show that an additional one million dollars was spent on emergency department charges for occupants of vehicles driven by teens. As with the crash risk factors cited above, the linked statistics only became worse as the number of passengers in a teens car increased.  For example, we found that the odds of hospitalization or death following a crash for a teenage driver increased as the number of passengers increased. We also found that a teenage driver with any passengers was over 1.5 times more likely to be admitted to the hospital or die following a crash compared to a teenage driver with no passengers. As shown in Table 2, the above odds ratio for hospitalization or death to the driver following a crash increased to nearly 2.5 for teen drivers with five or more passengers compared to teen drivers with four or fewer passengers. Again, this trend was not observed our adult drivers.

Table 2. Risk of Hospitalization or Death Among Drivers (by age group) with Increasing Number of Passengers

2001 Legislative Session 

During the 2001 Utah legislative session, Senator Karen Hale introduced Senate Bill 48 entitled Passenger Limitations for Young Drivers. Senate Bill 48 would require that teenage drivers be accompanied by a licensed driver over the age of 21 years in order to have passengers in the vehicle. Utah CODES personnel were integral in the effort to get this bill passed.  First, we developed a fact sheet based on the above data that was widely distributed among all legislators to aid in educating them about the issue (Attachment 1). This fact sheet was based on a peer-reviewed manuscript using Utah CODES linked data that was in-press at the time of the legislative session (Attachment 2). As part of the legislative process, Utah CODES personnel provided testimony and answered questions about teenage drivers with passengers at several legislative hearings. As the media became interested in the bill, statistics provided by Utah CODES and the Intermountain Injury Control Research Center were cited in the local newspapers and on television (Attachments 3 - 12). As a result, many legislators and the public were exposed to the CODES research and the benefits of linked data.

The governor signed Senate Bill 48 into law on March 15, 2001, and the new legislation took effect on July 1, 2001. Because Utah CODES had played such a vital role in the passage of the bill, we were invited to present our findings at a press conference to remind the public of the bill’s passage. Utah CODES personnel are planning an evaluation of the teenage driving laws using linked data from the years 2001 and 2002.

Conclusions

Working with the legislature was a tremendous opportunity for our CODES project to learn about the legislative process, gain exposure through media coverage of the bill, and demonstrate the usefulness of our linked database. Working with the legislature provided an opportunity to influence the traffic safety habits of an entire state. We look forward to sharing our data with the Utah Legislature in the future and hope to make Utah a safer place for all roadway users.