California highway safety laws are tough — unless you’re a teenager, watchdog group says
California highway safety laws are among the nation’s best at protecting people — but its laws governing teenage drivers need some toughening.
That’s the finding of Advocates for Highway & Auto Safety, a nonpartisan watchdog group that studies the effectiveness of laws aimed at curbing distracted driving, encouraging and enforcing seat belt use and closely monitoring and restricting teen drivers.
The study found California did well in 10 of 16 areas studied, notably in its tough vehicle safety laws requiring seat belts, child protection and restrictions on impaired drivers.
California is one of the nation’s seven highest-rated states. The group found it is “significantly advanced toward adopting all of Advocates’ recommended optimal laws.”
The state faltered, though, when it came to laws involving teen driving and on ignition locks to deter drunk driving.
California was rated highly for its efforts to protect vehicle occupants. Nationwide, 47% of the 22,697 people killed in passenger vehicle riders were not wearing seat belts.
The state has seat belt laws the organization said help prevent fatalities. Among them: Primary enforcement of front and rear seat belt use, meaning a law enforcement officer can stop a vehicle if someone is not belted in.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that 1,488 lives were saved in California in 2017 because of seat belt use. Had others been buckled in, it said 89 more lives could have been saved.
California got high marks for requiring motorcycle riders of all ages to wear helmets. It’s one of 19 states with that requirement.
The state also scored high in child safety enforcement. Nationally, a total of 1,038 children under 14 were killed in motor vehicle crashes in 2018, and about 190,000 were injured.
California is one of 15 states with laws requiring infants and toddlers to sit in a rear-facing child restraint system at least through age 2.
Another state law lauded in the report requires children who have outgrown the height and weight limit of a forward-facing safety sit in a booster seat until he or she is 8 years old and 57 inches tall. Sixteen states have such laws.
The group says California stumbles, though, as children get older. In the decade between 2009 and 2018, there were 4,074 fatalities in the state caused by motor vehicle crashes involving drivers aged 15 to 20.
Because California was rated poorly in lacking nighttime restrictions for such drivers, or restrictions on passengers, among other things, it’s in the middle of the rated states in the teen driving category.
The state does require that new drivers, in the first year, not drive between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. Nor can they transport passengers under 20 unless accompanied by a licensed parent or guardian, a state driver 25 or older or a certified driving instructor. The advocates group wants the nighttime ban to begin at 10 p.m., and the night and passenger restrictions to be in effect until age 18.
In another safety rating, the state gets particularly low marks for being one of 16 states not requiring a breath alcohol ignition interlock device linked to a vehicle ignition system for all offenders.
Such systems aim to deter someone with a drunk driving conviction from operating a vehicle if their blood alcohol level is above the level set by state law.
The state also gets middling marks for efforts to discourage distracted driving. While it bans text messaging during driving, the organization finds its efforts to restrict cell phone use as inadequate.
The report aims to promote the idea that as technology improves, so does the potential to prevent crashes that result in injuries and death.
Big challenges remain. Catherine Chase, the organization’s president, cited “critical safety issues that must be addressed,” including standards to measure driver assistance technology and autonomous vehicles, further measures to combat drug-impaired driving, better safety for rear seat passengers and more protection for pedestrians and bicycle riders.
This story was originally published January 24, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
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