Teens, booze and driving: A deadly mix

Bruce Frankel;Lori Sharn

03/03/1993

USA Today

FINAL

Page 01A

DELMAR, N.Y. _ Erin Cox was a spirited 98-pound redhead who often warned

her friends about the risks of drinking and driving.

Last summer _ just six months after a classmate died in a alcohol-related crash _

16-year-old Erin died after being thrown from a speeding pickup truck driven by

a friend who had been drinking beer.

The death of a teen-ager is especially tragic. Says Betty Martin, president of the

local Remove Intoxicated Drivers chapter: "It should be the most vital, vibrant

time of life."

Highway accidents are the leading killer of teen-agers, and after years of steady

improvement the percentage of drinking teen drivers killed in crashes has

stopped falling.

So alarming is the situation that the National Transportation Safety Board on

Tuesday urged steps _ including a ban on night driving _ that could save

"thousands" of teen-age lives.

There are many causes of teen accidents, but experts are particularly worried

about the combination of inexperience, immaturity and alcohol.

Tuesday, the five-member board called on states to create provisional licenses for

teens to limit night driving, lower to zero young motorists' legal blood alcohol

content and tighten and enforce laws barring the sale to and the use of alcohol by

minors.

Some states still have no laws preventing minors from consuming booze or using

fake IDs to obtain it.

"You can get liquor anywhere you want," says Greg Hopke, 15, a student at La

Salle High School near Albany, N.Y. "If you're not old enough, you just find a

friend to buy it."

All told, 33% of drivers aged 16-20 killed in accidents registered blood alcohol

levels of .10 or higher.

"It's so obvious something needs to be done with these kids," says the safety

board's Barry Sweedler. "The progress we've made with youth is now slowing

down."

In 1991, 5,749 teens died in highway accidents, down 31% since 1981 because

of a declining teen population and an increase in the drinking age to 21. But

nearly 37 of every 100,000 people aged 16-20 died in 1990 traffic accidents, a

higher rate than for any other age group.

"A lot of the attention is going to the elderly driver, but the teen problem is much

bigger than that," says Allan Williams of the Insurance Institute for Highway

Safety.

Concern is heightened by the fact that the number of teen drivers is climbing

again. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates the number

of drivers 16-19 will grow 15% by the year 2000.

"If we do nothing differently, we'll have ever-increasing numbers of young

people dying in crashes," says John Palmer, president of the American Driver

and Traffic Safety Education Association.

Because many schools are dropping driver education courses, only 60% of

drivers younger than 18 get training, compared with 85% in the late 1970s,

Palmer says.

Teens, eager to achieve adulthood and independence, often can't wait to get

behind the wheel.

"I need my license. My mom works late and I have a lot of after-school

activities," says Lisa Wang, 16, of Arcadia, Calif. "My friends are tired of

driving me around."

Jessica Dominguez, 16, of Downey, Calif., says her first day of driving with an

instructor from the California Driving School was scary. "My instructor kept

telling me to change lanes. I thought I was doing it wrong, but I guess not," she

says.

In most states, 15-year-olds and 16-year-olds have the same driving privileges as

adults. A handful of generally less populated states allow 14-year-olds to drive,

but only New Jersey has 17 as the minimum age.

Some states, however, do treat young drivers differently:

Provisional licensing for drivers younger than 18 is credited with preventing an

estimated 2,400 crashes a year involving teens in California.

Would-be drivers ages 16 and 17 must take 30 hours of education and six hours

of behind-the-wheel training to get a license. Traffic violations are treated more

harshly till age 18.

"You can have your license lifted much more quickly than an adult," says

Department of Motor Vehicles spokesman Bill Madison.

Sen. John Danforth, R-Mo., hopes to introduce a bill soon to provide incentives

for states to adopt provisional licensing and other steps.

More than half of teen driver fatalities were in crashes at night, which is why at

least seven states have curfews for all drivers age 16.

New York's _ the most stringent _ bars all 16-year-olds, and 17-year-olds who

haven't taken driver's ed, from driving 9 p.m. to 5 a.m.

At least 15 states have a lower standard for legal drunkenness if the driver is

younger than 21.

Despite the tragedies in Delmar, many of Erin Cox's friends and other teen-agers

say that out of boredom they'll continue getting smashed on beer or stoned on

marijuana. The small Albany suburb is home to many of the capital's most

prominent doctors, lawyers and professors.

On weekends when teens can't find a friend's house to party in, they pick up beer

at a deli in Albany and rent a room at a motel. At least 10 students or former

students of Bethlehem High School have died in alcohol-related accidents in 10

years.

Erin had tried to change that. After senior David Bartholomew, 17, was killed in

a car driven by a drunken friend last March, she asked school officials to set up a

panel of accident victims to talk to teens.

School officials said no, even after Erin started a petition.

Then, on the night of Aug. 26, Erin drank at least one beer and climbed into the

back of a Ford pickup truck driven by Christopher Arnold, 17.

He had brought beer to a playground for his friends. After drinking, some of

them went riding in his truck. He swerved to avoid three oncoming cars,

fish-tailed, and Erin was thrown head first into a tree.

Arnold's blood alcohol was estimated at 0.18. At trial he claimed he was an

alcoholic. He's serving 1 1/3-4 years in prison.

Could Erin's death have been prevented? Maybe so, says Erin's cousin Keri Cox,

15, who was also in the truck. If only "we'd known we weren't invincible, and it

could happen to us."

Contributing: Jonathan T. Lovitt

GRAPHIC,color,J.L. Albert, USA TODAY ,Source:Insurance Institute for

Highway Safety(Line graph); PHOTO,color,Chris Covatta