Every few days I get an email from the Safe Roads Coalition in Washington, D.C., the organization that, among other things, is promoting the STANDUP Act (a national minimum standard for teen driving laws) in Congress. The email usually includes links to news articles from across the country about fatal car crashes involving teen drivers. One of the sad realities is that most of the headlines and articles describe one or more passengers being injured or killed. Accidents like my son’s, where only the driver was killed, are more the exception.

As you know, driving is the leading cause of death of people under 20 in the United States. This raises the question: at what age do kids begin to be at risk as passengers? National statistics provide the answer: Age 12. Junior high school. Another question is: during what time of day are teen passengers most at risk? Here too the answer is clear from the data: the hours directly after school, when kids are most likely to pile into cars with freedom and fun most on their minds.

Advice about passengers is best broken into six categories: risks; myths; delusions; and advice for parents of drivers, parents of passengers, and schools and youth organizations.

1. Risks: Readers of this blog know my mantra: There is no such thing as a safe teen driver. Teens’ brains are not sufficiently developed to assess and respond to risk and danger; it takes years of experience to be a safe driver; and teens are learning to handle a vehicle and navigate at the same time, a very tough challenge. Driver’s Ed teaches a teen how to handle a car but does not produce a safe driver, because Driver’s Ed cannot overcome the factors just noted. So, parents who conclude that it is safe for their child to ride with a teen driver because that driver is a sensible kid who has taken Driver’s Ed are fooling themselves. Just like “the best car for a teen is no car,” the best advice about riding with a teen driver is DON’T.

But since this is likely to happen, the second level of analysis is to identify the factors that increase the so-called baseline dangers of teen driving: recreational driving (driving with out a destination, a prescribed route, a timetable, and a consequence for arriving late); distracted driving (texting, using an electronic device, doing anything other than eyes on the road, hands on the wheel, mind on the situation); impaired driving (drugs or alcohol); driving at night, in bad weather, or while fatigued; driving in an unfamiliar place; and driving without a seat belt. At least avoid these higher-risk situations.

2. Myths. An adult driver who is specifically supervising the safe vehicle operation of a teen driver, and is sitting in the front passenger seat, can be regarded as a “second pair of eyes.” However, to think that having another teen, an inexperienced driver, or anyone in the back seat improves safety by being an additional pair of eyes is nothing more than a dangerous myth.

3. Delusions. Some parents justify allowing teen drivers to have illegal passengers because it saves on gas. I wonder how many times a teen passenger actually pays for a share of gas, but in any event, this excuse, compared to the documented dangers of teen drivers having passengers, is delusional. The same is true of the explanation that a teen driver needs passengers to get experience with driving with passengers. Teens should learn to become safe drivers; then they can move on to passengers.

4. For parents of teen drivers. Passengers are a topic for which it is simple to set down clear rules: No passengers that are illegal under state law. No passengers without the express permission of the parent/supervising adult of the teen driver and the passenger. No exceptions, and this should be clear in the Teen Driving Contract that you and your teen negotiate and sign.

5. For parents of passengers: If your child must ride with a teen: Don’t allow your child to get in a car with a teen driver who is not known to you as a responsible, mature person, an experienced driver (at least one year with a full license, no suspensions or accidents), and able to drive your child legally. Purposeful driving only — no joyrides. Communicate with the driver’s parent or supervising adult so everyone is aware of the plan. Explain to you child clearly to not tolerate any form of distraction or impairment by the teen driver. Rehearse a strategy for how your child will get out on the car if the situation becomes unsafe (the most popular is “I feel like I am going to throw up”). Have a code word that your child can text or say in a cell phone call if he or she is in danger. Make it clear that the decision to get out of the car of a distracted, impaired, or unsafe driver, even in the middle of nowhere, can be the difference between life and death.

6. For schools and youth organizations. Every school or organization that relies in any way on teens transporting other teens should make sure that all permission forms have clear statement of that state’s law regarding passengers; carefully police which teens will carry passengers; and post on a website and a bulletin board a list of the teen drivers who have had their license long enough to legally carry passengers. That list should not include anyone who has had a license suspension or accident.

I have noted in an earlier post that the best way to get a teen’s attention is not through photos of car crashes or body parts, but from hearing about the human consequences of bad decisions by teen drivers. Hearing from a parent about the loss of a child is devastating enough, but see if you get your child to listen to a teen driver who killed someone else, maybe a girlfriend or boyfriend, and now has to live with the aftermath.

You observe a teen driver you know — from school, sports, a community activity, the neighborhood — speeding, texting, drag racing, carrying passengers who you know are illegal, out in a car after the state’s curfew. Do you inform the teen driver’s parent or guardian?

Your own teen reports seeing kids at her school leaving the parking lot not only with passengers who are illegal, but with a group that she just knows is going to be unruly and dangerous. Should she inform someone at the school? Should you?

When it comes to teen drivers, are we parents keepers of other people’s kids?

The fears that a parent would have calling the parent of a teen driver who was observed driving illegally or dangerously are easy to catalogue. To begin with, there is the likely problem that the parent of that teen does not understand, or does not want to understand, the dangers of teen driving, and so will respond to your “I saw Billy texting while driving” message with an out-loud or internal “Yeah, so what?” The parent may respond with a stern warning to “mind your own business,” or perhaps a snotty question about whether your own driving or your teen’s driving are so perfect and that you have now been appointed community watchdog. Maybe the parent on the receiving end will get defensive because the driving conduct you describe is something this parent does routinely, so your comment is not only a complaint about the teen’s driving but the parent’s. And in these days of tweets and electronic messages that ricochet around town and beyond in seconds, one may fear that a complaint about another parent’s teen driver will end up as a post on Facebook or Twitter, and what started out as a well-intentioned, one-to one alert will suddenly have you facing ridicule as a goody-two-shoes or a tattle-tale.

Yes, it is easy to list the reasons why you shouldn’t even consider being an informant about another family’s teen driver.

So now let me segue into all the reasons why you should be just that.

The starting point is the recognition that safe teen driving is everyone’s concern, for the simple and well-documented reason that teen drivers crash three times more frequently than the safest age group of drivers, the 35 to 49 year olds; and when they do, they injure or kill many more than themselves. In 2008 in the United States, in round numbers, 2,700 teen drivers died, but they took with them another 3,400 people - passengers, other drivers, and pedestrians. Every year in our country, three million teens get their licenses. They share the road with us. The safety of every driver and passenger is more at risk with teen drivers than any other age group. And that is before we factor in texting.

Next, please ask yourself: if your teen driver was doing something dangerous, would you want to be informed, regardless of the source? Hopefully your quick and unhesitating answer is yes.

Let’s also remember that the police simply cannot be everywhere, or even most places we need them, so it is universally true that supervision of teen drivers is up to parents. To say that this responsibility is limited to your own teen driver is to draw an unnecessary line and to open up a gap in the supervision that is essential to safe teen driving.

Finally, please note that with teen drivers, time is the enemy. If teen drivers misbehave and get away with it, they are empowered to act the same way again, or even to push the envelope further. It is well documented that the driving skills of teens deteriorate in the first six months after they obtain their licenses, when the lessons and cautions of Drivers Ed and the Learner Permit stage are easily forgotten and the inherent teen attraction to risk-taking kicks in. Bad or illegal driving observed but not reported is not just an omission but a refusal to take a step that is important to public safety.

Those of you who have looked at my Model Teen Driving Contract know that one of its provisions says that misconduct that will trigger a license suspension or other penalty can be reported by “any credible source.” In other words, my model builds into the agreement between parent and teen a recognition that reports from others are a vital part of keeping teen drivers on the straight and narrow.

I hope I have convinced those who may be wavering that a prompt report to a parent, guardian, school official, or whoever is best situated to act on the information, is a responsibility that each of us has, not just to teen drivers but to the safety of our families, our communities, and ourselves.

This leaves us with two issues: how best to communicate, and what to say? As to how to do it, the options are face-to-face conversation, a phone call, or an email or text message This is a judgment call. The probem with an email or text, of course, is that it may get forwarded somewhere that you can’t control and don’t want, and this may be a deterrent (“Look at what this guy said about my Alice!”). A face-to-face visit may compress the fears listed above. A phone call may be be the safest route.

Were it up to me to call another parent to report on a teen driver doing something illegal or dangerous, I would strive to use a script something like this: “This is Tim from Farm Hill Road. I want apologize in advance for this call and hope you will understand why I am calling. I struggled with whether to make the call, but I want to let you know that I saw your daughter texting while driving on ____ Street. It made me very concerned for her safety and those driving nearby. [Here, one can insert a compliment about the teen: "She is so admired around town."] Again, I hope you’re not offended by my bringing this up. I’m doing out of concern for safety - hers, yours, and ours. I appreciate your taking my call.”

At the risk of a cliché, when it comes safe teen driving, it definitely takes a village. So please, don’t be afraid to call, and don’t delay.

While many parents may assume that late night and bad weather driving are the most hazardous times for teen drivers, there is a body of research showing that it is actually the hours directly after school lets out that are the most dangerous. If we think about it, this makes sense. Teens leaving school parking lots are the ones most likely to have illegal and distracting passengers; to be in a big hurry; to be headed to a destination (friend’s house, fast food restaurant, etc.) that disqualifies the trip as “purposeful” driving (see October 8, 2009 post); and possibly to be fatigued.

If this phenomenon is true, then the exit or exits from a high school’s parking lot can be regarded as a Ground Zero of safe teen driving, a place at which time and effort spent on awareness and enforcement will pay dividends in safety. So what can schools do to use parking lots exits as a type of control point for teen drivers?

One technique in use among many schools is signage. Not just the familiar “Buckle Up” but signs that convey a more pointed message. The best I have heard about is this: A series of large, colorful signs that the teen drivers can’t miss or ignore, that convey messages approximately as follows:

- Are you ready to drive safely?

- Seat belts buckled?

- No illegal passengers in your car?

- Great! See you tomorrow.

If a school’s budget does not have funds for signs like these, a PTA or even a shop class or service organization can step up.

Another technique is spot checks of cars leaving the parking lot. This could be formal roadblock set up by police or a community relations officer, but it also could be done by a student group or PTA or parent volunteers. The intercepting can just involve a warning to drivers who are violating the rules, especially with respect to passengers, but if the school is serious about compliance, the program can also involve writing down and reporting license plates of violators and then taking some kind of enforcement action - losing a parking sticker for period of time, losing some in-school privilege, etc..

Surveillance cameras are another option. Many cities and towns, of course, are now installing such cameras at critical traffic locations to give drivers the message that violations will be recorded and prosecuted. Why not school parking lots? The danger is documented, so the cost is justified.

I recently attended a regional meeting of driving school owners at which one owner pointed out that the time when teen drivers leaving school parking lots are most likely to have illegal passengers is unexpected early dismissal days, such as when a snowstorm is approaching. On these days, parents, guardians, and others who are responsible for transporting teens home may not be able to make it, so teens grab a ride, whether legal and safe or not, with whoever can get them home quickest. Perhaps each school announcement about early dismissal should be accompanied by a reminder that beating a storm home is not a reason to violate safe teen driving/passenger laws.

I have written previously about two programs that schools can undertake: posting on their websites and bulletin boards a list of teen drivers who have had their licenses long enough to legally carry non-family passengers, so parents and students know who can and cannot do so; and making sure that Permission Forms that parents sign, allowing students to transport each other, make clear what the state’s passenger rules are, and that school permission forms are not an exemption or excuse for violations. Adding parking lot checks to these programs will provide a sound, thorough combination of steps to combat a well documented cause of teen driver crashes — illegal passengers.

Last thought: At the Lifesavers Conference earlier this year I heard about an innovative high school exercise called Grim Reaper Day. On a designated school day, one student, dressed in black, roams the school and taps on the shoulder the number of students that, based on teen driver fatality rates and the particular school’s population, are at risk in a given year. Upon being tapped, those students disappear for the rest of the school day, until they are brought together in the school’s auditorium or lobby, to demonstrate the potential breadth of consequence to the school community of bad driving decisions. The students who pulled this off at their school said it was very effective in getting the attention of their fellow students — and I have no doubt.