New Jersey Accident and Injury Law Blog : New Jersey Injury Lawyer & Attorney : The Grossman Law Firm : Serving Monmouth County, Bergen County

A new American Automobile Association study shows that New Jersey's Graduated Driver's License program for teen drivers, has being successful in its target – fewer teen accidents.  According to the study, there has been a substantial drop in the number of fatal accidents involving teen motorists since the new laws were passed.

In 2001, New Jersey enacted new GDL laws that included

•  Restrictions on the number of passengers teen motorists could have
•  More hours of practice driving
•  Restrictions on driving at night that prevented motorists with a learner's permit from driving between 11 PM and 5 AM, and provisional license holders from driving between midnight and 5 AM

Those laws seem to have had the required effect. The AAA study showed that there was a reduction in the number of 17-year-old teen motorists involved in fatal accidents between 2002 and 2005, compared to 1998 to 2000. Statistics for crashes involving teen motorists after midnight were even better with the accident rate after midnight for 17-year-old motorists dropping by 44%. That's not all. There were major reductions in accident rates and injury rates in all teen accidents that were reported to the police, accidents that resulted only in injuries, as well as fatal accidents involving 17-year-olds. Post-midnight accidents involving 18-year-olds went down by 17%.

This reduction in injuries, fatalities and accidents has been encouraging enough for safety advocates to push for stronger laws involving parental involvement. According to New Jersey Division of Highway Safety Chief Sam Fisher, the agency is working with the Motor Vehicle Commission to study how parents of teen motorists can get more involved in teen safety issues. One bill that was linked to this issue passed the Assembly last year, and will be introduced this year. The bill will require parents of motorists below the age of 18 to attend a teen motorist safety orientation program.

Scott Grossman is a New Jersey car accident lawyer representing injured victims of car accidents in Monmouth, Bergen, Passaic and Ocean Counties, and across the state of New Jersey.

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A controversial new law that will require New Jersey motorists driving under a permit or probationary license to display a red decal on the license plate, will go into effect on May 1^st.

The law is called Kyliegh’s Law, and is named after Kyliegh D’Alessio , a teenager who was killed in a car accident caused by a probationary driver. It will require all drivers, both new and current, holding a probationary license to place the red decals on the top left corner of the license plate. Probationary license holders will be required to purchase the decals at four dollars a pair. After a teen motorist completes the probationary term, he or she can remove the decals from the license plate. The decals are removable, so if other family members want to use the same car, they can merely remove the decal.

The law has not been without its share of controversy. Critics believe that it discriminates based on age, and filed a lawsuit which was dismissed early this month after a judge ruled that there was nothing unconstitutional about the law. With the new law, New Jersey police will be able to better enforce the state's GDL laws.

It will be a while before the dust settles around this new piece of legislation. Teen motorists are likely to continue to complain. The fact is however, that teen motorists are at a high risk of death in automobile accidents. If a law like this can encourage teen motorists to follow rules regarding the number of passengers they have in their car, or the hours they are allowed to drive, then it’s worth it.

Scott Grossman is a New Jersey accident lawyer, representing injured victims of auto and car accidents in Monmouth, Bergen, Passaic and Ocean Counties and across the state of New Jersey.

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As a New Jersey personal injury lawyer, I have been concerned about the growing use of cell phones while driving by teens, and the tendency to text while behind the wheel. A new Pew survey shows that the problem may be worse then we believe.

The researchers surveyed 800 teens between the ages of 12 and 17 between June and September this year. Seventy four additional teens, who were part of 9 focus groups in New York, Atlanta, Denver and Anna Arbor were also surveyed. While some of the results were not too surprising, the others were extremely worrisome.

The survey suggests that about a quarter of teens aged between 16 and17 years admit to having texted while driving. These statistics were not a shocker,  but what did concern me were the findings that approximately half of the respondents aged between 12 and 17 admitted to having been a passenger in a car with an adult driver texting at the wheel. In fact, these teens frequently saw their parents texting while driving.

Reactions to this behavior were mixed.  While in some cases, teens admitted to being nervous or scared when their parents texted while at the wheel, other teens had grown used to such parental behavior, and thought texting while driving was not a big deal. It’s the second group of teen motorists that I am concerned about. Texting while driving is extremely dangerous, and when a teen sees his or her parent addicted to text messaging while at the wheel, it only helps to develop and foster such reckless behavior in impressionable young motorists.

As a New Jersey car accident lawyer, I believe that parents have as much of a responsibility as schools and law enforcement authorities to develop safe driving practices in children. It’s alarming that so many parents seem to recklessly text at the wheel, unaware or uncaring that their children are observing and learning from them. Parents must step up and contribute to efforts to tackle the texting while driving menace.

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Teenagers remain more at risk for a drunk driving accident than older drivers. In fact, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, alcohol is linked to at least 24 percent of all accident-related deaths involving a male teen driver. Those may seem like mere statistics, but for New Jersey car accident lawyers who constantly deal with accident victims,  and at least one Hudson County family, those numbers are now all too personal and painful. The Colilla family of Lyndhurst, New Jersey is mourning the death of their 19-year-old daughter who was killed in a drunk driving accident in North Bergen on March 13^th. The driver of the car Tyla was traveling in, has now been charged with death by auto.

Soon after the accident, in which he crashed his car that was carrying two other passengers besides Tyla Colilla, into a support wall, the driver Jesse A. Saquipulla was found to have a blood alcohol level of .12.  The other two passengers, like Saquipulla suffered minor injuries. 

Painful as the Colilla's tragedy is, it's far from unique. While drunk driving accident rates in the rest of the population, have shown a decline in recent years because of better education and greater enforcement, those involving teen drivers have been showing an alarmingly opposing trend. Adding to the problem of teen underage drinking is a host of other factors that seem to compound the problem. For instance, teens are less likely to wear seatbelts than adult drivers, and are also more likely to indulge in other driving behaviors that may mitigate the problem, like listening to loud music, talking with friends in the car, snacking, talking on the cell phone etc. it doesn't help that members of this age group are more likely to indulge in reckless driving, like speeding and tailgating. When you add alcohol use to what is already a combination of risky driving factors, it's easy to understand why there has been such an increase in the number of accidents involving teens.

All is not without hope, however. Studies show that teens whose parents encourage discussions about the dangers of drunk driving at home are less likely to drive under the influence. Also, teens who have been exposed to strong and effective drunk driving awareness campaigns, both in school and outside have a lesser risk of driving drunk. Underage drinking not only destroys the lives and future of these young people, but costs society heavily in lives lost and expensive and long term medical treatment for the severely injured who survive these accidents.

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