Occupants must wear safety belts, no alcohol in blood while driving. No crashes or traffic convictions for at least 12 months. The pattern is all too familiar. An auto packed with teenage joyriders spins out of control one night on the highway. The aftermath is much more devastating than mangled metal and broken glass.
People are dead.
You read about it in your local newspaper. The combination of youth, inexperience, alcohol, darkness and heightened excitement can be deadly. But increasingly, and with great speed, states are doing something about it. The laws promise to take control of the early driving experience and to reduce significantly the death toll from crashes that involve young drivers. States in this country began to enact GDL laws in 1996 based on similar laws enacted since 1994 in Canada and New Zealand.