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Trenton
-- Division of Highway Traffic Safety Director
Pam Fischer today announced that law enforcement
agencies in Bergen and Union Counties will
conduct checkpoints near high schools and
other locations frequented by young drivers,
to ensure that teens are driving safely and
in compliance with the State’s Graduated
Driver License (GDL) law.
Launched last year in Bergen County and expanded
in 2009 to Union County, the program, which
will run from April 6 - 24, is designed to
help increase teen driver awareness of the
potentially deadly consequences of bad driving
behaviors.
“Motor
vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death
nationwide for young people between the ages
of 16 and 20, with an average of 6,000 teens
killed each year across the country,”
Fischer said. “In New Jersey,
a teen crashes every nine minutes. These crashes
are most often the result of overconfidence
behind the wheel, coupled with distraction,
inexperience, speeding and other unsafe behaviors.”
Fischer
added that in 2008, 37 teen drivers and 23
teen passengers, in a car driven by a teen,
tragically lost their lives in traffic crashes
in New Jersey.
“Clearly,
one young life lost is one too many,”
she said. “Our checkpoint program
speaks directly to teens about the tragic
consequences of unsafe driving, and provides
critical tools for law enforcement and traffic
safety officials to use to keep young drivers
safe on our roadways.”
Under
the law enforcement component of the three-week
initiative, all teen drivers who go through
the checkpoints will receive a handout outlining
the GDL restrictions as well as tips for behind-the-wheel
safety. While summonses will be issued to
teens in violation of the GDL law, the program
will place equal emphasis on education. Last
year, in Bergen County, 4,933 young drivers
went through the program’s checkpoints,
and 317 summonses were issued for GDL violations.
Posters,
banners and other written materials help to
round-out the public education component of
the program, entitled “Don’t Drive
Stupid.” The effort was adapted from
materials developed and tested with teens
in Utah. All high schools in Bergen and Union
Counties received information about the “Don’t
Drive Stupid” campaign, which included
banners and other promotional items for use
in and around their campuses. Written materials
in this year’s expanded kit included:
talking points, that can be used as public
service announcements in school-based media,
during assemblies, at sporting and other school
events, and in conjunction with daily morning
announcements; a teen driving fact sheet to
help educators lead classroom discussions
on safe driving; and an idea-starter sheet,
designed to assist educators in developing
innovative activities that will engage and
motivate teens.
Fischer, who served as chairwoman of the New
Jersey Teen Driver Study Commission, noted
that the pilot program also tied directly
into a recommendation made by the Commission
to establish teen driving checkpoints. The
pilot program was the first recommendation
to be implemented after the report was delivered
to Governor Jon S. Corzine and the Legislature
on March 27, 2008.
As part of the pilot program, the DHTS provided
grants of $2,000 each to 36 departments in
Bergen and Union Counties to run the teen
driver checkpoints. A list of those towns
receiving grants is available on the Division’s
web site, at www.nj.gov/oag/hts/grants/grantees.html.
In addition, public awareness materials are
available on the web site, and can be downloaded
for use by students, educators, and community
and law enforcement agencies.
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