Teen driver laws in most states contain a nighttime curfew. In general, the deadline for teen drivers to be home ranges from 9:00 p.m. to midnight, with several exceptions, such as employment, school activities, medical needs, religious observances, and participation in volunteer public safety services (fire, ambulance, “safe rides,” etc.).

Some thoughts about curfews and managing them:

1. The most important point is that curfews do not address the most dangerous hours of the day for teen drivers, the one or two hours after school. It is at those times that teens are most likely to be riding with illegal passengers, which substantially increases crash rates. Thus, curfews address the second-most dangerous time, late-night driving.
2. As to late-night driving, of course, the biggest problem is teen drivers racing home to beat the curfew. In fact, some teens think that getting off the road by the state’s deadline is a legitimate reason to drive at whatever speed is necessary to get home on time.
3. The curfew does not justify speeding, of course, but it does highlight the importance of parent-teen planning to ensure that teens will be off the road without speeding. Doing so requires a discussion before the teen leaves of the route and the anticipated return-trip travel time. Once these are established, parent and teen are better able to plan the return to comply with the curfew (route + estimated travel = necessary departure time). The departure should also build in a margin for traffic delay; if the route normally takes 30 minutes and the curfew is 11:00 p.m., then departure time should be 10:15 p.m.
4. The teen driver should be clear that a delay such as a traffic backup that will result in missing the curfew needs to be reported to a parent or guardian as soon as it can be done safely, that is, not by texting or using a cell phone while driving, but by getting to a safe, off-road location at the earliest opportunity to explain the location and extent of the delay. The teen should understand that delays first reported upon arrival at home will be thoroughly questioned.
5. If the parent and teen have executed a Teen Driving Contract (either the model on this blog or one of the other national models), the contract most likely identifies a penalty for missing a curfew. As much as any other part of a Teen Driving Contract, this provision requires a parent’s judgment. As we all know, predicting driving time can be an inexact science, and there will be times when teens will arrive late due to traffic conditions beyond their knowledge or control. Recall that the purpose of a Contract is a mutual commitment to safety, not a punishment for the slightest infraction. My advice is that if the teen was diligent in leaving on time, provides a credible explanation for being a few minutes late, and is not a repeat offender, flexibility is appropriate.
6. As for managing the exceptions stated in your state’s law, the first, simple rule is: if the teen will be on the road after the state’s curfew on a regular basis, most likely for employment or a school activity, have the employer or a school official provide a letter, on letterhead, that the teen can keep in the glove box. The letter should specify when the teen will be on the road, why, and the route. An employer’s letter might say: “To Whom It May Concern/Law Enforcement: Kevin Jones is an employee of the 7-11 Store on Midland Avenue in Smithtown. He works until midnight on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, after which he drives to his home at 123 Main Street, using Route 14.” A school official’s might say: “Mary Doe is involved in a theater production at Central High School from April 16 to May 4. She will leave school Monday through Thursday night between 11:00 p.m. and midnight and drive to her home at 18 Elm Street, using the River Parkway.”
7. Teens need to understand the limits on using exceptions. When I speak at high schools, I tell students, “If the curfew is 11:00 p.m. and its 11:15 p.m. because the game went into overtime, and the police stop you, but you are somewhere close to a direct line between school and your home, you’re not breaking the law. But if it’s 2:00 a.m. and you’re two towns away, you’re in trouble.”
8. Parents should bear in mind that a joyride with a curfew is still a joyride and therefore dangerous. The fact that a teen may be ordered home from “recreational” driving (see “The Difference Between “Purposeful” and “Recreational” Driving”) by a certain time does not lessen the huge dangers of the joyride itself.
9. Finally, recognize that the night-time curfew in a state’s teen driver law is a maximum. Use your judgment on a case-by-case basis. Exercise your rights under your Teen Driving Contract. If particular circumstances such as fatigue or bad weather counsel you to set an earlier curfew for a particular evening, by all means do so! As with all other parts of teen driver laws, the state sets one curfew for all teens in all circumstances. This does not mean that you, as a parent, park your judgment in the garage.

I was privileged last month to attend the Lifesavers Conference, the annual national meeting of the traffic safety community. The meeting (this year, the 28th Annual) draws federal, state, and local public safety officials, law enforcement, hospital and emergency medical services, insurance companies, teachers, academics/researchers, and a few parents. Herewith, information I gleaned that is of interest to parents of teen drivers:

1. The good news: Even though there are more cars on the road and people are driving more miles than ever before, preliminary statistics show that there were fewer fatalities on American roads in 2009, just under 34,000, than in any year since 1954, and fatality rates for teens are down approximately 22 percent from 2005. Stricter teen driver laws are working.
2. On the other hand, in this economy, cars are getting smaller, and occupants of smaller cars are at greater risk. In addition, some caught in the economic downturn have figured that it’s less expensive to travel by motorcycle than car, and as a result, motorcycle accidents are increasing rapidly. Motorcyclists are 35 times more likely to be injured than occupants of a car.
3. The big question for government officials and researchers about the recent progress in fatality rates is how much is attributable to stricter laws and enforcement, and how much results from large increases in the price of gas, and from the economic recession. Simply put, millions of people are driving fewer miles because they cannot afford to do so. Particularly, when economic times are tough, it’s recreational driving, as opposed to driving to work, school, or shopping (“purposeful” driving) , that declines. More accidents occur in recreational driving. The question thus becomes, if the economy improves, if the price of gas moderates, or even if car manufacturers introduce much more fuel efficient cars, will vehicle miles traveled increase again, and with them crashes?
4. For teen drivers, the experts seem to agree that the best combination for state teen driver laws is a long learner’s permit phase, both in terms of hours behind the wheel (more than 100) and length of time (6 to 12 months); licensing as late as possible (17 or older); and no night driving and no peer-group passengers for the first year of licensure.
5. At the Conference, one parenting expert laid out four styles of parenting: uninvolved, permissive, authoritarian, and authoritative. He explained that authoritative – firm rules, and parent oversight rooted in safety and awareness of danger, not power or control – is the goal.
6. One speaker suggested that teen drivers should have to ask for the car keys every time they get behind the wheel, even if they are the primary driver of the car. This step builds in a filter, a pause button for parent and teen to review whether it is safe to drive at that particular moment, to review any portion of a teen driver contract that might be implicated at the moment, to establish a mutual understanding of planned route, purpose, arrival time, and passengers. Good idea!
7. Other interesting items:
   • The federal STANDUP Act will be introduced soon in the U.S. Senate (which it was on April 28)
   • Rumble strips – those indentations in the asphalt that make a startling noise when a driver drifts off the side of a road – are very effective.
   • Aside from changes in technology inside cars such as dashboard-mounted computer screens, the next wave in traffic safety will be crash avoidance, which includes car-to-car sensors, and road-to-car sensors that keep cars in lane or warn them of objects ahead.
   • The vast majority of traffic fatalities in our country do not occur on Interstate highways but rural, two-lane roads.
   • NHTSA now maps traffic fatalities nationally; the map is on its website, www.nhtsa.gov.
8. One simple reason that texting is so dangerous: Avoiding a crash takes about three seconds: one second to identify the risk, one second to react, and one second to start the braking or evasive maneuver process. But the average text message requires the sender to look at the screen for at least five seconds. Thus, texting eliminates reaction time to circumstances that cause crashes.
9. At the conference, students from high schools in Minnesota, Florida, and New York spoke about a peer-education program for teen drivers called Act Out Loud. Allstate is a sponsor. One of the kids described an intra-school exercise in which one student was appointed The Grim Reaper for the day. This Reaper roamed throughout the school, tapping on the shoulder the appropriate number of students who die each year in that state in driving accidents. The students tapped “disappear” – they are forbidden from speaking to anyone for the rest of the day. At the end of school, the “dead” students assemble at the school’s front entrance, to demonstrate the magnitude of annual loss of teen drivers. Very effective, I thought.
10. Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia has launched a fabulous, comprehensive safe teen driving website. I’ve navigated it several times, and highly recommend it.

Not bad for a three-day conference.