Driving in general and teen driving in particular have lots of acronyms and abbreviations: GDL, STANDUP, IID (that’s ignition interlock device), MPG, MPH, BAC, DUI, DWI, FARS (Fatality Analysis Reporting System), DOT, NHTSA, AAA, and many others. I would like to introduce a new one for parents of teen drivers: PACTS.

Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety has issued its annual national report on the status of state highway safety laws. The report measures each state’s laws against 15 parameters and identifies where states can improve their rules. The report also shows the basis for the organization’s unflagging support of the Safe Teen and Novice Driver Uniform Protection (STANDUP) Act (to now be reintroduced in the 112th Congress), which seeks to use federal highway funds as an incentive for each state to recognize the irrefutable evidence that these minimum standards save lives, and adopt them as their minimum rules. Here is a link to the report: Click here to see the full 2011 Roadmap to State Highway Safety Laws.

So what does PACTS stand for? I fashioned this acronym from the following facts in this new report (page 25):

• “Fatal crashes are 21 percent lower for 15-to-17 year olds drivers when prohibited from having any teenage passengers in their vehicles”;

• “Twenty-eight percent of young drivers aged 15-to-20 who were killed in crashes in 2009 had a BAC [blood alcohol content] of .08 or higher [.02 being the general measure of being impaired];

• “The greatest incidence (20 percent) of teenage motor vehicles crash deaths occur from 9PM to midnight”;

• Teen drivers are “the most likely group to engage in text messaging while driving (36 percent)” and texting “increases the risk of a safety-critical driving event by 23.2 percent”; and

• “In 2009, more than half (52 percent) of the young drivers killed were unrestrained….”

That is: Passengers, Alcohol, Curfews, Texting, and Seat belts - five leading causes of teen driver crashes and fatalities. PACTS.

Maybe the last thing we need is another acronym, but maybe also this is a more easily remembered way for parents to bear in mind the causes of teen driver accidents and fatalities. Maybe parents can take a small piece of paper, write “PACTS” on it, and tape the paper to the car keys. Or the garage door. Or the dashboard. Or their cellphone.

Q.E.D.

Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia has made safe teen driving a priority, and “CHOP” publishes a superb website about teen driving, found at www.teendriversource.org. If you have not visited, I urge you to do so.

One of the most interesting and useful studies that CHOP has produced on teen driving is one that provides statistical evidence regarding this critical caution for parents of teen drivers: teens who are permitted to have their own cars or to be the primary drivers of a particular car have higher crash rates than those who share a car with a parent or another family member.

In a 2009 publication, CHOP recited these statistics (which, given everything that is on this blog, should be regarded as downright frightening):

• Almost three of every four teen drivers in the U.S. have “primary access” to a vehicle (which I assume means they can drive the car whenever they want, so long as they can obtain the keys and permission; that is, they do not have to wait for someone else to finish using the vehicle).

• Teens with primary access to a car drive about 6.6 hours and 200 miles per week, as compared to 130 miles in 4.3 hours for those who share a car; and

• Crash rates for teens with primary access are more than double those who rely on a shared car.

The hospital’s study admirably compiles and presents the statistical case against giving teens primary access, but it seems to me that the reasons for this marked difference go beyond what can be demonstrated statistically. If a teen shares a car with a parent, the following good things are likely to happen: the parent keeps closer watch on whether and when the teen gets behind the wheel in the first place; the parent is more likely to be attuned to the difference between purposeful and recreational driving; the teen is more likely to have to requisition the keys from the parent; the parent is more likely to make an informed, day-by-day, case-by-case judgment on whether it is safe for the teen to drive; the parent and teen are more likely, before the teen leaves, to put together at least an informal plan for the driving route, passengers, arrival time, check in time, and return time; and the parent and teen are more likely to consider, at least momentarily, whether the teen driving at that particular moment is allowed under the parent teen driving contract that they hopefully have signed.

The hospital’s study also reports that teens with primary access are shown to be more likely to use cell phones while driving. However, curiously, the study did not detect any difference between alcohol or seat belt use between primary and shared vehicles.

At a basic parent-teen level, it seems that what is going on here is that when a teen shares a car with a parent, the parent is more motivated to be proactive, if only to protect the value of the car and the parent’s own convenience, than a parent whose teen has his or her own car. Conversely — no rocket science here — teens just don’t want to face the consequences of crashing Mom’s or Dad’s car.

CHOP’s study is simple, clear, and in line with common sense: buying your teen his or her own car, or giving your teen primary access to a car, substantially increases the risk of a crash, injury, or fatality. By contrast, forcing a teen to share a car reinforces good parenting and oversight across the board.

Some of the topics I post about are a bit theoretical, in the sense that I talk about things I have observed but never actually experienced. This topic, seemingly dry, is real and personal.

In an earlier post, I discussed how parents can use traffic tickets as teaching moments, how a teen getting a citation for a moving violation is an opportunity for a parent to reinforce why traffic laws must be obeyed, and why respect for law enforcement is a critical part of our responsibility as citizens. In that post, I recommended that if a teen receives a fine or license suspension, he or she should ”take the medicine” as quickly as possible.

There is another, somewhat hidden side after law enforcement issues a ticket, which is the time it can take from when the ticket is issued to when it is enforced through a fine or license suspension by a Motor Vehicle Department or the court system. Most states and some big cities have a central processing bureau, so that when the police issue a ticket, the ticket is sent to that bureau, which sends a notice of the violation to the teen driver’s home (whether parents of teen drivers should be notified at the same time is an interesting issue). If the punishment is only a monetary fine, the teen either pays the fine and that is the end of it, or goes to court to contest the fine, which may result in reduction or a deal with a prosecutor. In some states, paying the fine is an admission of wrongdoing that results in an automatic license suspension. If suspension is the enforcement, the driver either accepts the suspension, sends in the acknowledgement, has the license suspended, and then endures the no-license period, or the driver goes to court, seeking to have the suspension modified or reversed. Finally, in some states, a ticket or a repeat violation triggers a mandatory driver retraining, where the teen driver reports to the motor vehicle department or a driving school for a refresher.

But my point here is not how this all happens and which administrative system is best, but what should a parent do with a teen driver while the police, the motor vehicle department, the processing agency, and the court system sort all of this out?

I will reveal my answer by explaining why this topic is such a difficult one for me. In 2006, before Connecticut overhauled its teen driver laws, the only penalty for a teen’s first ticket was a fine, and for a second ticket, a fine and a mandatory four-hour retraining session. My son got his license in January 2006, got a ticket for a double lane change without signaling in April (paid the fine), and then in September got a second ticket for going 42 in a 25 MPH zone. He paid the fine for this second ticket, and then in October got a notice from the DMV that he had to attend a retraining class within 60 days of the notice or his license would be suspended. He put it off and off and off, and finally in mid-November scheduled the retraining for the morning of December 2nd. Then he crashed on the night of December 1 and died six hours before his class.

So again, the question: what should a parent do between the time a teen receives a ticket and whenever the government gets around to punishing that conduct? Several answers. First, this situation illustrates one key benefit of a teen driving contract. If a parent and teen have negotiated and signed one, it provides the first answer, an immediate suspension of driving for some period of time as agreed to in the contract, regardless of whether or when the government acts. (In my model contract, this immediate suspension is in addition to whatever government imposes, so the contract attaches a double whammy to misconduct.) Second is to realize that the issuance of ticket should be a loud alarm that a teen is at risk, especially if the violation involved something like speeding, illegal passengers, not wearing a seat belt, alcohol or drugs, etc.. In other words, don’t let the fact that the government takes time to impose a punishment lull you as a parent into taking the violation as anything less than a serious development requiring your own immediate discipline and increased oversight.

Lastly, as I urged in the earlier post, don’t fight the ticket or its consequences. In 2007, Massachusetts instituted a system of mandatory license suspensions (which Connecticut copied a year later). In the early going there were newspapers reports about parents, outraged that their teen’s license suspensions were going to make their lives less convenient, going to court to fight the suspensions. These parents, unfortunately, were badly misinformed about the dangers of teen driving.

Please don’t let the administrative delay that can follow your teen getting a ticket or citation cause you to let your guard down. If anything, it should be way, way up.