Graduated Driver Licensing Laws

Graduated Licensing

Teen drivers, overall, have the highest fatal crash risk of any age group.
Drivers between the ages of 15 and 20 account for about 7 percent of the driving population and are involved in 14 percent of all fatal crashes.
Graduated driver licensing (GDL) is a system designed to phase in young beginners to full driving privileges as they develop their driving skills. GDL places restrictions on the teen drivers and adds an intermediate stage to driver's licensing between the learner's permit and full licensure stages.
Since states began implementing GDL in 1996, the per capita crash rate of 16-year-olds has decreased by approximately one-third. Evidence suggests that extended learning periods, early intervention with traffic violators, night driving and passenger restrictions have helped to reduce the crash rate.
Forty-six states and the District of Columbia have adopted at least one key element of graduated driver licensing, which includes the following three stages; learner's permit, intermediate or provisional license, and full license. Four states - Hawaii, Montana, Oklahoma and Wyoming - have no graduated licensing laws for teenage drivers.

Sources: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), U.S. Department of Transportation: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), Journal of Medical Screening Injury Prevention, National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL)

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