New Staten Island Young Driver Laws Are Being Ignored While Other Young Driver Laws are Unknown to Some. Are you following the Rules?

If you have a Staten Island teen in the house who is working on getting their driving permit or license, you may know there were new younger driver laws put into effect this February in an effort to help decrease accidents and fatalities associated with teen car accidents on Staten Island.  Before we take a look at the new licensing laws, many people are not aware that there is a New York City-specific law that requires special equipment to be installed when a teenager is learning to drive. Although everyone in Staten Island knows that teens with a permit or junior license must drive under the direct supervision of an adult. What many people don't know is that to learn to drive in the City of New York, the car that they are learning to drive in must also have dual controls, or brakes, installed.  Dual brakes allow the supervising passenger to independently operate the brakes from the passenger side of the car.  The average price to have dual brakes installed in your car is $300 but once your teen has their senior a license and no longer needs the dual brakes you can either choose to keep them (maybe for a younger sibling who will be getting their permit soon) or you can always sell them.

As of February, the following new laws went into effect for young Staten Island drivers:

• Junior license holders are required to have 50 hours of supervised driving time, of which 15 of those hours must be driven after-sunset before scheduling a road-test. This was increased from 20 hours with no mandatory after-sunset driving under the old law.
• Junior license holders are only allowed to have one non-family member under the age of 21 years old in the car at a time, when not accompanied by a licensed parent or guardian. This was decreased from two non-family passengers under the age of 21 years old under the old law.
• Young drivers must hold a junior permit for at least 6 months before a junior or senior license may be issued. Once a 16-year old passes a road test, they will receive a junior license, which offers no other benefits from a permit when driving in the 5 boroughs of New York city. Young drivers who are 17 years old will be granted a senior license if they pass a road test and complete a state-approved driver education course.

While the new young driver laws went into effect in February, authorities are worried that they are going to see an increase in teens already disobeying the new laws, especially during the upcoming summer driving season.  According to statistics, teen car accidents on Staten Island dramatically increase between Memorial Day and Labor Day.

One study shows that there were more than 5,000 people injured or killed in car accidents in New York in 2008 in which the driver was between 16 and 20 years old.  Another study showed that more than half of young-driver involved accidents occur on Friday, Saturday or Sunday and forty-two percent of those accidents occur between 9 pm and 6 am. 

The statistics of teen's injured and killed in car accidents are alarming. It is important that we keep our kids safe this summer.   Keeping your young drivers safe can be the difference between life and death - do all that you can to make sure that your children understand that driving a car is serious and to pay attention to the road and the laws that have been put in place for their safety.