Georgia Injury Law Blog

National Teen Driver Safety Week is going on now! In part one of this post, we talked about the disturbingly high rate of teenager traffic fatalities and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s “5 to drive” rules to keep teen drivers safe. In today’s post we will examine graduated driver licensing (GDL) laws.

GDL laws have proved effective in reducing crash rates for young teenage drivers, particularly 16- and 17-year-olds. These laws put more restrictions on younger teenage drivers that gradually lift as they age and gain more driving experience. GDL programs permit new drivers to gain experience by limiting their exposure to risky situations, such as driving at night or with multiple passengers, before getting full driving privileges.

In general, GDL laws do not apply to teenagers who begin driving at age 18 or older. Today a significant number of teens are waiting to get their licenses, so they are not subject to the restrictions of the GDL laws. Two new studies by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety suggest that not only do GDL laws help reduce accidents for drivers under 18, but that they could be beneficial for new drivers 18 and older. Inexperience is a major cause of accidents, even more so than age, and while 18-year-old beginner drivers may be more mature, they are still inexperienced.

Despite what teenagers may believe, they are not the best drivers. Tragically, motor vehicle accidents are the leading cause of death for teenagers in the United States. In many cases, the teenagers who died were behind the wheel.

Since it was established by Congress in 2007, National Teen Driver Safety Week has been observed in the third week of October. This year it runs from October 19 to 26. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), which sponsors the program, is emphasizing the importance of parents in taking a proactive role to keep their teens safe.

During last year’s campaign, the NHTSA introduced the “5 to drive” program–five key rules for teens to be safe drivers. The rules address the major causes of accidents for young drivers.

Unless you are a bomb squad technician or a professional stuntman, driving is probably the most dangerous part of your job. In fact, motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death on the job and the second-leading cause of unintentional fatal injuries off the job. To raise awareness of the hazards and to promote safe driving practices among employees, the Network of Employers for Traffic Safety (NETS) has designated October 6 through 10 as its annual Drive Safely Work Week.

While traffic collisions obviously have a huge impact on the individuals involved, they also affect their employers. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the annual economic cost of car crashes in the U.S. is $277 billion. NETS seeks to reduce these costs by having employers encourage driver safety among employees as part of their corporate culture.

The theme of this year’s Drive Safely Work Week is “Driving your safety culture home.” The campaign is designed to help employers incorporate safe driving into their corporate safety culture. In particular, the campaign is encouraging employers to set company policies regarding seat belt and mobile device use. This seems like a good place to start: a recent study by the National Safety Council found that cell phone use causes 26% of car accidents. And despite seat belts’ well-known effectiveness in saving lives, many adults still do not wear them.

In the future, an accident site in Atlanta could have drones hovering above wrecked cars, and high-tech ambulances equipped with video -streaming features that allow patient data to be transmitted instantly to the nearest hospital. New intelligent transportation technology could help expedite the process of responding to accident scenes, and help save more lives each year.

In car accidents, where a person has suffered devastating injuries like brain injuries or spinal injuries, the first hour after the accident is critically important. In fact, a person’s chances of surviving an accident increase dramatically if he receives life-saving critical care during this period of time. Unfortunately, very often, precious time goes by as the person is transferred to an emergency trauma care center. By the time the person reaches the center and receives the life -saving care that he needs, it is often too late.

However, at a recent conference that showcased intelligent transportation technology in Michigan, promoters exhibited new devices and technologies that can be used at accident sites to provide faster medical treatment.These technologies can be used both inside an emergency responder vehicle and outside the vehicle.