ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, October 16, 1996 TAG: 9610160047
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: LANSING, MICH.
SOURCE: Associated Press
STATISTICS SHOW that inexperience is the chief problem of younger drivers. Michigan's new system slowly increases privileges.
The four teen-agers were laughing and carefree as they drove past a group of joggers on a country road that rainy afternoon.
Seconds later, a tanker truck slammed into their car, leaving 15-year-old Colette Barnes and two other girls dead in a pile of mangled metal.
One of Colette's friends - also 15 and driving with a learner's permit but without the required adult in the car - had run a stop sign. Only a 17-year-old boy in the back seat survived.
In the 14 months since, Colette's parents have filled some of the emptiness with a crusade to spare other families from the same tragedy. Lynda and Scott Barnes pushed a new law they think could have saved their daughter.
The law makes Michigan one of a growing number of states to establish multi-step, or ``graduated,'' driver's licenses that slowly give teen-agers more and more driving privileges as they gain experience behind the wheel.
These restrictions are aimed at what experts say is the chief problem for young drivers: inexperience.
The law, passed last month and effective in April, allows Michigan teens to start learning to drive earlier - at 143/4 instead of 15. But it has a three-step process that sets stricter requirements for training, calls for more parental involvement and limits the hours teens may drive.
Currently, Michigan teen-agers simply need driver's education and 30 days with a learner's permit to get a full-fledged license at age 16.
Under the new law, they will first receive a Level 1 license that, like a learner's permit, will require either a parent or a licensed driver over 21 to be in the car. Teens will have to stay at that level for at least six months, and parents must swear to supervise 50 hours of driving, including 10 at night.
Sixteen-year-olds who complete those requirements can then go to Level 2 and drive alone at most times of the day. Between midnight to 5 a.m., however, they cannot drive at all unless they are with a parent or are going to work.
A regular license goes only to 17-year-olds who have spent six months at Level 2. Teens will have to stay conviction- and accident-free to progress at each stage.
Colette's parents know the new restrictions might not have saved their daughter; the girl who ran the stop sign was already breaking the law by driving without an adult. But they believe the extra training and parental involvement will make novice drivers safer and wiser.
LENGTH: Medium: 54 linesby CNB