Getting my driver’s license when I was 16 was a big deal, as I’m sure it is for teens today. Today, most people have to do their driver training on their own. They don’t have the luxury of a public-school-based program. But back when I was a teen, we had driver’s ed in school. We took six weeks out of P.E. to sit in the auditorium listening to Coach Gramer tell us the rules of the road — he even went so far as to show us a really scary movie about what would happen if we didn’t wear our seat belts. It’s one of the big reasons I wear mine to this day. We were even given a certain number of hours behind the wheel during school. This time with Coach Kerr, who made driving seem pretty scary just by sitting in the seat next to you. And I spent countless hours behind the wheel with Mom sitting next to me (stomping her foot on the floor, trying to hit the brake if she thought I was going a little too fast).

There was never any question as to whether I or my friends would get our driver’s licenses at 16. The only thing that held us back was getting in those practice hours. Now, before you think I’m getting nostalgic about the good old days, I want to remind you this was back in the day before air bags, when mid-size cars were bigger than today’s big sedans. When I got my license, I would haul four or five other kids to softball practice or the mall. Granted, we didn’t have cell phones to distract us, but imagine six teenage girls in a car together — talk about distracting.

Graduated licensing laws here in Colorado and in other states limit when teens can drive and who they can have in the car with them. The laws have helped lower teen crash rates around the country. But is it enough?

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has released a new report that focuses on the costs in terms of lives of allowing licensure sooner rather than later. The message is that licensing at later ages would substantially reduce crashes involving teen drivers. The same conclusion has been reached in other countries. Teens in Great Britain and most Australian states can’t get their licenses until they turn 17, for example. In most EU countries it’s 18. The Institute’s new report is being released at the annual meeting of the Governors Highway Safety Association.

“This is a tough sell,” says Anne McCartt, Institute senior vice president for research, “but it’s an important enough issue to challenge the silence and at least consider changing the age at which we allow teenagers to get their licenses to drive. After all, graduated licensing has been successful ever since states began to adopt these programs more than a decade ago, and raising the licensing age is a logical next step to reduce driving by the riskiest motorists on the road, the youngest ones.”

I’m sure there are a lot kids in their early to mid-teens out there thinking this is a terrible idea. But there are also probably a lot of parents of those kids worried about putting their child behind the wheel. Whether we license drivers at 16, 17 or even 18, they still need plenty of behind-the-wheel time with an experienced driver before they take off on their own.

“Sixteen-year-old drivers have the highest crash involvement rate of any age group in Colorado and are nearly three times more likely to be involved in a fatal crash than the average of all other drivers,” says COTeenDriver.com. The Web site offers lots of tips for teens and their parents and all the information you need about Colorado’s Graduated Licensing Laws.

Despite the fact that parents and teens support a ban on cellphone use while driving, teens are ignoring the ban, a new study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety finds. Parents and teens alike believe the ban on hand-held and hands-free phone use isn’t being enforced. Researchers concluded that North Carolina’s law isn’t reducing teen drivers’ cellphone use. Teenage drivers’ cellphone use edged higher in North Carolina after the state enacted a cellphone ban for young drivers. The two-part study coupled researchers’ observations of teenage drivers with telephone surveys of teens and their parents in the first evaluation of a cellphone law for young drivers.

Phone bans for young drivers are becoming commonplace as concerns mount about the contribution of distractions to teens’ elevated crash risk. Seventeen states and the District of Columbia restrict both hand-held and hands-free phone use by young drivers. Six states and DC bar all drivers from using hand-helds. For a state-by-state list of cellphone laws, visit www.iihs.org/laws/cellphonelaws.aspx.

If you look at that state-by-state list, you’ll see that some states have cellphone bans for all drivers — not just teens. And Utah’s law defines careless driving as committing a moving violation (other than speeding) while distracted by the use of a hand-held cellphone or other activities not related to driving.

Colorado’s Graduated Licensing Law prohibits teens with a learning permit from talking on a cellphone while driving. While Colorado’s law doesn’t prohibit teens from using their cellphones while driving, parents might want to. Teens need fewer distractions when they drive, not more.

The “Click It or Ticket” campaign is in full force. Between now and June 1, Colorado law enforcement agencies are ramping up enforcement of the seat belt law. Colorado has a secondary enforcement law for adult drivers and front-seat passengers. Drivers can be ticketed for violating the seat belt law if they are stopped for another traffic violation. “Click It or Ticket” enforcement focuses on speeding and aggressive drivers. Drivers who are stopped for a traffic violation and aren’t using a seat belt will be ticketed. Teen drivers and all passengers must be buckled up, and the driver can be stopped and ticketed for violating the law.

Preliminary data shows the number of unbelted drivers and passengers who died on Colorado roadways dropped to an all-time low in 2007, credited in large part to ducation and high-visibility enforcement of the state’s seat belt laws, according to a press release from the Colorado Department of Transportation.

Last year, 206 people were killed in crashes who were not buckled up, out of a total of 89 drivers and passengers who died. The percentage of unrestrained occupants killed was also the lowest on record at 53 percent. By comparison, in 2002 — the first year of “Click It or Ticket” enforcement in Colorado — 380 people died unbuckled, representing 67 percent of the total number of drivers and passengers killed

“Wearing your seatbelt costs you nothing,” said James F. Ports, Jr., Deputy administrator, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in the press release.

He’s right, and it doesn’t take long to buckle up and make sure your passengers are buckled up, as well. There are plenty of excuses for not wearing a seat belt: It’s uncomfortable, it wrinkles my clothes, it’s not cool. The fact that seat belts save lives should silence those excuses. But because it doesn’t, the “Click It or Ticket” campaign aims to get more people buckled up.

This story from the Associated Press is pretty grim. Car crashes are the leading cause of death for tweens and teens, and more than half — 54 percent — of the 10,000 children passengers killed were riding with a teen driver. Drivers younger than 16 were the most dangerous.

But there’s some good news for kids on the roads in Colorado, according to this story from Gazette.com. Motor vehicle crashes killed 43 Colorado teens in 2007, down more than 50 percent from the 93 teen deaths in 2004, CDOT spokeswoman Heather Halpape said. Of course that’s no reason to relax with driver training. Officials attributed the drop in fatalities in part to the strengthening of Colorado’s driver’s license laws.

Colorado’s Graduated Licensing Laws restrict the number and ages of passengers for teen drivers.

• No passengers under age 21 until the driver holds a valid driver’s license for at least six months (siblings and passengers with medical emergencies excepted).**
• No more than one passenger under age 21 until the driver holds a valid driver’s license for at least one year (siblings and passengers with medical emergencies excepted).**
• No more than one passenger in the front seat of a vehicle driven by a person under age 17, and the number of passengers in the back seat must not exceed the number of seat belts. All passengers with drivers under seventeen must wear seatbelts.

The graduated licensing laws also limit the time of day a teen can drive and designate the number of driving hours required to obtain a license.

And don’t forget, now through March 9, the CSPD will be cracking down on teen drivers violating the seatbelt law.

Extra Colorado Springs police officers will be out patrolling streets for teen drivers violating the state’s seat belt and driver’s license laws, according to The Gazette.

From March 3 through March 9, police will increase its enforcement of these laws as part of the statewide “Click it or Ticket” campaign, which is aimed at increasing seat belt usage among teen drivers.

All drivers and front seat passengers of a vehicle are required, by law, to wear seat belts. In addition, newly licensed teen drivers cannot have passengers under 21 years old in their vehicle. They are allowed one passenger under 21 after they have had their license for six months.

New teen drivers also cannot drive by themselves between midnight and 5 a.m., and they cannot use cell phones while they are driving.

To read more about Colorado’s Graduated Licensing Laws, click here .

Having just returned from a cross-country road trip, I was happy to read the news related in this article from the Rocky Mountain News. Not only have fatal and injury crashes in Colorado dropped 63 percent in the past seven years, the number of fatal and injury crashes nationwide have dropped 15 percent.

“People are driving more responsibly in Colorado,” State Patrol Chief Mark Trostel said. The patrol also credits safer vehicles and roads and a tougher drunken-driving law.

My road trip took my companion and me across Colorado, Kansas, Missouri and most of the way across Illinois. In all those miles, we didn’t see one accident. We did see plenty of highway patrol out on the roads, and most drivers were staying pretty close to the speed limits. While gas prices are still on the rise, the cost of an airline ticket continues to soar as well. Flying would have cost well over $1000, and we would have still needed to rent a car to reach our final destination. Driving, we were able to go at our own pace, eat when and what we wanted, all on our own time schedule. And the dog was able to travel with us — without being stuffed under an airline seat. She did travel in her kennel, because it’s always safest to restrain your pet in the car (for more tips for traveling with Fido, check out this article from the ASPCA). We had time to actually have a conversation without shouting over the roar of a plane. And a stranger didn’t fall asleep on my shoulder.

This recent story from The Gazette tragically illustrates why we need to enforce and follow graduated licensing laws. A 15-year-old driver was killed in a one-car crash in eastern El Paso County early Friday. That’s not to say that older drivers don’t have fatal accidents. But this was a young person who should have only been driving with adult supervision, and only if she had a learner’s permit. Even if she had had her license, she shouldn’t have been driving at 4:40 a.m. and she shouldn’t have had a passenger in the car.

The graduated licensing laws were enacted to keep young drivers safe while they get experience behind the wheel. Sixteen-year old drivers are nearly three times more likely to be involved in a fatal crash than the average of all other drivers, according to www.coteendriver.com.

I interviewed DRIVE SMART Colorado Springs executive coordinator Maile Gray back in September for this story for Pikes Peak Parent. While student drivers are required to have 50 hours of practice driving, Gray recommended even more. Only after the first 1,000 hours of driving do crash rates start to go down, she said. “Practice behind the wheel is what’s going to make a teen a better driver,” said Gray.

I am currently reading “Crashproof Your Kids: Make Your Teen a Safer, Smarter Driver,” by Timothy C. Smith. In it, Smith, a certified driving instructor and dad, combines his knowledge with that of numerous experts to develop a series of behind-the-wheel exercises designed to improve teens’ driving awareness, behavior and skills. It is outlined in such a way to make it easy to fit into parents’ and kids’ schedules.

And while 1,000 — or more — hours may seem like a lot of time, think about what Smith says: “Consider for a moment all the time you already spend in service of your son or daughter. More than any other generation in history, we’ve added chauffeur to our parenting duties. We shuttle our kids back and forth to see friends; to take lessons in dance, piano, and Spanish; to attend games and practices for soccer, baseball, basketball, football, volleyball, softball, and tennis; and to parties, dances, meetings, and club functions. If we were paid chauffeur rates for all the running around we do for our kids, we’d all be retired and living in Fiji by now.”

So, you invest time into making your kids safer drivers. You have more free time because you’re not shuttling them around and you have confidence they will be responsible drivers because you’ve been out with them. While we can’t protect young people from every danger, we can make them better prepared for the road. And hopefully, we can reduce the number of tragic stories we read about young drivers.

The Colorado State Patrol and statewide law enforcement agencies are once again stepping up DUI enforcement leading into the New Year’s holiday, announced the Colorado Department of Transportation.

The holiday Heat Is On enforcement began Dec. 28 and ends 3 a.m. Jan. 2, 2008.

During last year’s New Year’s Eve enforcement period, 449 people were arrested for DUI in Colorado and there were no alcohol-related fatalities.

“It’s a fact, drinking and driving don’t mix for anyone, regardless of age or life experience,” says Colonel Mark Trostel, Chief of the Colorado State Patrol, in a press release. “Defensive driving is key and you should always be aware of the other drivers on the road. Always buckle up yourself and your passengers as that is a major factor in preventing injuries or possible death. If celebrating with alcohol, plan ahead and designate a sober driver or take alternate transportation. Law enforcement across the state will be out in force to keep our highways safe from impaired drivers.”

The Colorado State Patrol and 71 agencies, including the Colorado Springs Police Department, have filed plans for increased patrols and saturation patrols during the enforcement period.

Did you know Colorado law requires you to move to the left lane when encountering an emergency vehicle on the side of the road? Specifically, the law reads: “When a driver on a roadway with two or more lanes in the same direction is approaching an area where an emergency vehicle, operating its emergency lighting is stationary on the side of the roadway, the driver must safely move to the left lane. If traffic, road or weather conditions do not allow a driver to move over to the left lane, the driver must slow to a safe speed while moving through the area.”

Nationwide, in a four year period beginning January 2000, 48 law enforcement officers were killed as a result of being struck by a vehicle, according to the Colorado State Patrol’s Move Over brochure. The law was put into effect to protect police and other emergency workers, including paramedics and firefighters.

If a driver is pulled over for violating the Move Over law, he can be cited and receive a fine, as well as four points on his driver’s license. But it’s not just about the law, it’s about safety and protecting the men and women who are out there trying to protect us. So move over or slow down.

A downloadable Colorado State Patrol Move Over law brochure can be found at www.csp.state.co.us/downloads/moveoverbrochure.pdf. Other safety materials from the Colorado State Patrol can be found at www.csp.state.co.us/safety_materials.cfm.