Parental Enforcement/Teen Compliance with
GDL Provisions

The Teen Driver Safety Research team at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia Research Institute is working to reduce the frequency and severity of crashes involving teens behind the wheel. Graduated Driver Licensing (GDL) programs are a cornerstone of public policy aimed at reducing the burden of crashes on adolescent health. Further reductions in teen crash rates will rely on strengthening specific provisions of, as well as greater enforcement of, GDL laws.

The following projects are currently underway:

• Graduated Driver Licensing Decal Law Effect on Young Probationary Drivers
  On May 1, 2010 New Jersey enacted the first-in-the-nation decal provision (Kyleigh’s Law, P.L. 2009, c. 037 - S2314) as part of its GDL program. Also known as Kyleigh's Law, it requires all youths 16 to 20 years of age holding a permit or intermediate license (i.e., probationary license) to display a reflective decal on the front and back license plates of vehicles they are operating. The provision was enacted with the goal of facilitating police enforcement of GDL restrictions, and ultimately, decreasing teen driver crash rates.
  
  The first CHOP study found that crash involvement of an estimated 1,624 intermediate drivers was prevented in the first year after the decal's implementation, as well as a 9 percent decrease in the rate of police-reported crashes among intermediate drivers and a 14 percent increase in GDL-related citations issued to intermediate drivers. Significant effects were also observed for specific types of intermediate driver crashes. For instance, multiple-vehicle crashes decreased 8 percent and crashes involving an intermediate driver with peer passengers decreased 9 percent.
  
  The CHOP team is currently conducting further research to evaluate the provision. The researchers hope to better understand the causal pathway from the decal provision to crash reduction, including the decal’s effect on teen compliance and the attitudes and perceptions of the NJ law enforcement community.
  
  For more information on these studies, please contact Allison Curry, PhD, MPH at (215) 590-3118 or currya@email.chop.edu.
  
  These projects are funded by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the National Institute of Child Health & Human Development.