Young, new drivers have the highest crash risk among all other age groups. The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration believes that inexperience is one of the chief agents when it comes to these accidents but they also believe that driving during high risk nighttime hours, risky behavior, poor judgment and decisions as well as drinking and driving all contribute to the high crash risk. The Graduated Driver Licensing (GDL) reduces these risks with its three- stage process in licensing young adults. During stage one the driver is given a supervised learning period, during stage two he/she obtains an intermediate license, which restricts unsupervised driving in high-risk conditions and finally during stage three the driver receives his/her full license, only after passing each stage successfully. Many believe GDL has had a huge impact on traffic safety, which can be found in the decreasing number of crashes within this young age group. New Zealand and Canada have had similar results after their implementation of these GDL programs. Parents are extremely supportive of GDL and have been found spending more time than required supervising their new drivers. In the 1970's, the University of North Carolina Highway Safety Research Center (UNC HSRC) headed the research, which gave birth to the GDL. New Zealand was the first to launch a GDL program and since then many GDL laws have been established. In April 1997, Michigan was the first state to implement the program as well as it's certification of 50 hours of supervised driving and two phase driver education program. The National Transportation Safety Board is an advocate for stronger nighttime and passenger restrictions and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has recommended a GDL blueprint, both in hopes to keep the number of new driver accidents low.
Samenvatting