LICENSING CHANGES SOUGHT FOR TEENS; PROPOSAL WOULD RESTRICT TEEN-AGERS' DRIVING PRIVILEGES

A driver's license shouldn't be a license to crash. But all too often it is.

Nationwide, traffic crashes are the leading cause of death among 15- to 20-year-olds and are blamed for nearly one-third of the deaths in this age group.

AAA Auto Club has launched a national campaign to steer teen-agers to safer driving.

The "License to Learn: A Safety Program for New Drivers" campaign wants states to mandate more behind-the-wheel driving experience and implement a graduated driver licensing system.

Illinois will implement a new graduated licensing system on Jan. 1 under legislation signed into law last month by Gov. Jim Edgar.

Missouri doesn't have a graduated licensing system, but Mike Right of the AAA office in St. Louis said his organization hopes to convince state lawmakers to pass a bill next year that would establish such a system.

Graduated licensing requires young, novice drivers to go through several licensing stages before receiving full driving privileges.

About 10 states currently have graduated driver licensing systems, Right said.

States like Maryland and California have seen a reduction in traffic crashes since adopting such licensing.

But Jackson High School driver's education instructor Jerry Suedekum said a graduated licensing system isn't warranted in Missouri.

He defended the current system where 16-year-olds can obtain full driving privileges.

But Suedekum said the state could improve the physical driving test. "I think the actual driving test is probably too easy," he said.

Suedekum said he would like to see the state require high schools to provide driver's education.

Right said that only about 40 percent of Missouri high schools offer driver's education programs to its students.

The Cape Girardeau School District eliminated its driver's education program five years ago. Students still can take driver's education through the vocational-technical school, but they have to pay for it.

But Suedekum said driver's education training won't replace experience.

Each year, about 175 to 200 Jackson High School students receive driver's education training.

But each student only receives about five hours of actual behind-the-wheel experience in a semester, Suedekum said.

Right, AAA vice president, comes armed with statistics to support the need for licensing changes.

Drivers ages 15 to 20 years account for only 7 percent of the nation's driving population, but are involved in 14 percent of all fatal traffic crashes and nearly 20 percent of all accidents.

More than 6,300 drivers and passengers in the 15 to 20 age group died in traffic crashes in 1996.

In Missouri, 272 people died and 26,839 were injured in traffic accidents in 1996 involving drivers under the age of 21.

"One person is killed or injured in young-driver-related traffic crashes every 19.4 minutes in the state of Missouri,' said Capt. Clarence Greeno of the Missouri Highway Patrol.

Greeno is director of public information for the patrol in Jefferson City.

Greeno said the state's driver examination can't predict how a teen-ager will drive after getting his or her license.

The statistics show many of them drive poorly. "They lack the experience, the maturity," Greeno said.

Right said crashes involving young drivers are caused by inexperience, poor driving skills, risk-taking and poor decision-making.

The problem extends beyond teen-age drivers to the young people riding with them. Two-thirds of teen passengers who died in crashes in 1996 were riding in vehicles driven by teen-agers, he said.

In Missouri, anyone who is at least 15 1/2 years old can obtain a temporary instruction permit for six months.

A person can obtain a driver's license in Missouri at age 16, provided he or she passes the written, vision and driving tests.

Illinois already has more restrictions and its new law will expand on those.

In Illinois, a person must have taken driver's education in high school and have a parent's permission to be licensed at age 16. Otherwise, he or she can't obtain full driving privileges until the age of 18.

The new "Graduate to Safety" law includes a requirement that parents of young drivers certify that their child has completed at least 25 hours of supervised, behind-the-wheel instruction outside of driver education classes.

Young drivers must hold a learner's permit for at least three months before being licensed.

Under the new law, a driver under the age of 21 faces a 30-day license suspension if convicted of more than two driving offenses in a two-year period.

Drivers under the age of 18 who are suspended would have to complete a remedial driving course and be retested to get their driving privileges back.

All passengers under the age of 18 must wear seat belts in vehicles driven by persons ages 16 to 20.

When the driver is under 18, the number of passengers in the vehicle will be limited to the number of available seat belts.

Illinois officials said the new law is needed. Teen-agers make up only 6 percent of all Illinois drivers, but they account for 16 percent of fatal crashes in the state.