 |
The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
|
The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
Cynthia Burch, National Study Center for Trauma & EMS, 701 W. Pratt St, Room 544, Baltimore, MD 21201, 410/328-6844, cburch@som.umaryland.edu
It is widely accepted that a graduated licensing system can reduce the number of crashes involving youthful drivers. On July 1, 1999 Maryland introduced the Rookie Driver Graduated Licensing System (GDL) to lessen high risk behavior, reduce crashes, injuries and fatalities especially among young drivers (aged 16 to 21 years). This system raised the age where one could receive a driver’s license, from 16 years to 16 years and 1 month and required driver’s education and increased supervision among other restrictions.
Using Maryland’s Crash Outcomes Data Evaluation System (CODES), which captures police reports and citations issued throughout Maryland, we compared the experience of 16 year-old drivers for two years before and after the GDL (July 1, 1997 through June 31, 2001). Crashes decreased by 12.5% (5,374 vs. 4,704), but the crash rate increased by 3.0% (229.1 vs. 258.7 per 1,000 16 year-old licensed drivers). Citations issued decreased by 15.7% (11,290 vs. 9,521) and the citation rate decreased by 21.5% (620.8 vs. 405.9 per 1,000 16 year-old licensed drivers). After the GDL, citations for belt use, failure to yield, red light running and speeding decreased significantly (p<0.001). This evidence supports the GDL in Maryland to reduce the number of traffic citations and crashes involving 16 year-old drivers. However, while it has been published extensively that GDL reduces the number of crashes, this study shows that it does not reduce the crash rate among 16 year-old drivers. That rate increase should be studied further to evaluate current and future GDL programs.
Learning Objectives:
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.