Effect of Florida's graduated licensing program on the crash rate of teenage drivers

On 1 July 1996, Florida instituted a graduated licensing program for driver s younger than age 18. For the first 3 months, holders of learner's license s are not allowed to drive at all between 19:00 and 06:00 h; thereafter, th ey may drive until 22:00 h. Learner's licenses must be held for 6 months pr ior to eligibility for the intermediate license. Sixteen-year-old intermedi ate license holders are not permitted to drive unsupervised from 23:00 to 0 6:00 h, 17 year-olds from 01:00 to 06:00 h. All drivers younger than 18 hav e strict limits on the number of traffic violations they can accumulate and , effective 1 January 1997, all drivers younger than 21 are subject to a ze ro tolerance law for drinking and driving. Florida crash data for 1995-1997 were obtained and compared with similar data from Alabama, a state that bo rders Florida but does not have graduated licensing. For 15, 16, and 17 yea r-olds combined, there was a 9% reduction in the fatal and injury crash inv olvement rate in Florida during 1997, the first full year of graduated lice nsing, compared with 1995. On a percentage basis, crashes declined most amo ng 15 year-olds, followed by 16 year-olds and then 17 year-olds. Reductions were not seen among Alabama teenagers nor among 18 year-olds in Florida. ( C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd, All rights reserved.