Nov 14, 2002 3 min read

One sure-fire way to make teen-agers your enemy is to suggest further restrictions on their driving privileges. We would guess the National Transportation Safety Board made a few enemies last week when it recommended that states limit young drivers to carrying just one passenger under the age of 20 unless an adult driver goes along for the ride. The reasoning behind the NTSB proposal is sound. The more people riding in a car, the more potential distractions there are. And since many – perhaps most – 16- and 17-year-old drivers are not terribly skilled behind the wheel, they need to concentrate fully on their driving, not on other people in the vehicle.

That’s not a knock against young drivers just because they’re young. They simply haven’t had enough time on the road to hone the skills they demonstrated only to a limited degree when they took their driving test. It takes a lot of practice to become a good, safe, sensible driver, and a car full of friends is not the ideal learning environment.

Accident statistics bolster the transportation board’s argument. Young drivers are involved in a disproportionate number of fatal traffic accidents. It’s safe to assume that at least some of those accidents are the result of in-car distractions directly related to the number of people in the car at the time.

We hear the teens’ side of the argument, too. Most young people consider themselves good drivers – adequate, at least – and don’t buy the business about being distracted by their friends. Many parents probably aren’t sold on it, either, considering they can’t wait until their sons and daughters can drive so they no longer have to take them everywhere.

Enforcing a passenger restriction law would be difficult and time-consuming. And, conceivably, it could result in more cars on the road driven by young drivers.

In Pennsylvania, newly licensed drivers already are prohibited from driving between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. Getting a license is also more difficult than it used to be, with a longer learning period and more supervision required before the driving test is taken.

Speaking of the test, we think it could be improved. As it is, it doesn’t confirm much more than one’s ability to drive around the block. There’s more to driving – a lot more -than starting and stopping, signaling a turn and parallel parking. Yet, if you can do those few things, and answer a few easy questions, you qualify to operate a machine weighing several thousand pounds, sometimes at high speed, in all kinds of weather and in close proximity to similar machines whose operators may be less skilled than you are.

We think passenger restrictions could prevent some accidents and save some lives. Whether the states will go along with the idea is another matter. Encouraging stronger parental controls might be a better, less objectionable way to achieve the same ends.