Steering Teens to Safety

The makeshift shrines--crosses, flowers, letters--that line Soledad Canyon Road convey the losses in a way numbers alone can’t, as shocking as the numbers are. Five teenagers died in two car crashes within a single month on this Canyon Country thoroughfare, and nine more young people were injured in an accident on adjoining Sand Canyon Road.

Do the numbers mean these roads aren’t safe? Santa Clarita’s traffic engineer is reviewing the accident reports. But equally urgent are the actions being taken by city and county officials--and by parents and teenagers--to address the accidents’ other common denominator, the age of the drivers and passengers.

Vehicle crashes are the No. 1 cause of death for teenagers, accounting for almost a third of all deaths for the age group, according to the Automobile Assn. of America.

A study released just last month by a team at Johns Hopkins University pointed out that the risk of death in automobile accidents in cars driven by 16- and 17-year-olds climbs sharply with each additional passenger. A 16-year-old with three or more passengers faces nearly three times the risk of a fatal crash compared to one driving alone.

California’s Teen Driver Safety Act, which took effect in July 1998, addresses these risks by barring 16- and 17-year-olds from carrying fellow teenagers in their vehicles for six months after they get their licenses. It also extends young drivers’ supervised training on learner’s permits and prohibits them from driving unsupervised between midnight and 5 a.m. This “graduated licensing” law is considered one of the toughest in the country.

The new law is credited with a 17% drop in deaths among young motorists between 1998 and 1999.

But eager to achieve independence, not every teenager follows the law. Not every parent enforces it. And as tough as the law is, it won’t prevent all accidents.

The Johns Hopkins team found, for example, that death rates for teenage drivers spiked between 10 p.m. and midnight--times not covered by California’s restrictions. And young people who met the law’s graduated requirements or those older than 17 can still be pressured by peers to speed or drive recklessly--or can simply be distracted by the chatter of friends. One of the recent accidents involved a car with five occupants, and another, an astounding nine.

Teenagers have a way of seeing themselves as immortal. The roadside shrines are a stark reminder otherwise, but in time even they will lose their ability to shock. So sheriff’s deputies and volunteers have set out on an educational campaign, visiting school campuses to plead with young drivers not to speed. And the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department has stepped up patrols on the roads where the accidents occurred, issuing tickets and warnings, hoping that a reminder now will mean one less cross down the road.