Graduated Driver Licensing in Georgia: The Impact of the Teenage and Adult Driver Responsibility Act (TADRA) [Full Report]
-
2006-03-03
-
Details:
-
Creators:
-
Corporate Creators:
-
Contributors:
-
Corporate Contributors:
-
Subject/TRT Terms:
-
Publication/ Report Number:
-
DOI:
-
Resource Type:
-
Geographical Coverage:
-
Corporate Publisher:
-
Abstract:In response to a series of widely publicized fatal crashes involving teenaged drivers, the Georgia General Assembly passed the Teenage and Adult Driver Responsibility Act, known as TADRA, during its 1997 legislative session. The law took effect in July of the same year. TADRA was subsequently strengthened by Georgia’s General Assembly in 2001. In addition to introducing graduated driver’s licensing in Georgia, TADRA imposed additional restrictions on young drivers. These include “zero tolerance” for DUI and automatic license revocation for excessive speeding and other dangerous driving behaviors. To assess the impact of TADRA, we analyzed fatal crash data by driver age in Georgia for 5 ½ years before enactment of TADRA, and 5 ½ years afterward. To control for historical effects, we compared Georgia’s experience to that of three neighboring States that did not enact equally comprehensive legislation during the study period.
During the final 5 ½ years before TADRA was enacted (January 1, 1992, to June 30, 1997): A total of 317 Georgia drivers age 16 were involved in fatal crashes. This represents an average annual driver fatal crash rate of 57.0 per 100,000 16-year-olds. The average annual fatal crash rate involving Georgia drivers 16 years old was 77 percent higher than that of Georgia drivers 25 and older. The average annual fatal crash rates of drivers 17 to 24 was more than 50 percent higher than that of Georgia drivers 25 and older. Unsafe or illegal speed was the most prevalent contributing factor in fatal crashes involving 16-year-old Georgia drivers. Fully 35.6 percent of fatal crashes in this age group during the pre-TADRA period involved “unsafe or illegal speed.” During the first 5 ½ years after TADRA was enacted (July 1, 1997, to December 31, 2002): 230 Georgia drivers age 16 were involved in fatal crashes. This represents an average annual driver fatal crash rate of 36.1 per 100,000 16-year-olds. Compared to the 5 ½ years prior to enactment of TADRA, the average annual rate of fatal crashes involving 16-year-old drivers decreased 36.8 percent. The average annual fatal crash rate of Georgia drivers age 16 was only 12.8 percent higher than that of Georgia drivers 25 and older. Speed-related fatal crashes involving 16-year-old Georgia drivers were cut by 42 percent, and alcohol-related fatal crashes were reduced by nearly 60 percent without displacing fatal crashes to older age groups. The first cohort of Georgians to grow up under TADRA (i.e., those who reached age 21 in 2002) experienced an annual rate of fatal crashes 38 percent lower than drivers who reached age 21 in 1997, the year TADRA was enacted. Georgia drivers who reached age 21 in 2002 and were involved in a fatal crash that year were substantially less likely than their age-matched peers in 1997 to: (a) have a prior record of speeding; (b) have been previously convicted of DUI, or (c) have a prior license suspension for hazardous driving. These observations suggest that TADRA may exert lasting favorable effects on driver behavior
-
Format:
-
Funding:
-
Collection(s):
-
Main Document Checksum:
-
Download URL:
-
File Type: