Teens in car accidents

• Traffic accidents are the leading cause of death for people ages 15 to 20.
• Nearly 6,000 teens die every year in traffic accidents.
• More than 300,000 teens are injured in traffic accidents every year.
• Though they comprised just 6.3 percent of the driving population in 2005, drivers ages 15 to 20 were involved in 12.6 percent of fatal crashes.
• Alcohol is a factor in fewer than 10 percent of the deadly crashes involving 16- to 17-year-olds.
• The top three factors for fatal crashes involving teens are speeding, running off the road and driving in the wrong lane.

Sources: www.cyberdriveillinois.com
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
The Allstate Foundation

Two mothers, one shared grief

“Typical teenagers,” said Monica Trueblood of her children, Danielle and Kevin, who died in a car accident on the way home from school a little over five years ago.
Danielle loved “shopping, movies, music and seeing her friends,” Monica said. “Kevin was a nut about sports, especially basketball. Family meant an awful lot to them,” Monica said. “Both of them felt it was important to spend time with family and friends.”
“Luke was a very nice boy,” said Cindi Adams of her son who died in a car accident four years ago this past November. “He pulled everyone into the crowd and didn’t want anyone left out.”
“He could fix anything with his hands,” she said. Now Cindi does the things that Luke used to do for her, like putting a new vacuum cleaner together. “I think he’s with me, helping me,” she said.
Following their children’s accidents, both families received an outpouring of support from Marian, from their children’s Catholic elementary schools and from their towns. The support continues, in the Truebloods’ case, with contributions to the Trueblood Fund in the children’s names that awards yearly scholarships to two eighth-graders headed for Marian and a college-bound Marian senior. Luke’s friends attend a yearly picnic with the Adams around Luke’s birthday. Monica said that many people say to her, “I don’t know what to say.” She tells them, “You don’t have to say anything; you’ve said it by being here.”
Time and talking to other moms who have lost their children have helped Cindi heal. “It never gets better,” she said, “but it does get easier. It’s like losing a limb. Eventually, you learn how to live with the loss. There’s a mother’s wail that I never knew I had. This year,” she said, “is the first year that I can go for long periods without crying. The love is all that matters.”
The Truebloods and the Adams each learned about the Haligus Road accident when they turned on the 10 o’clock news and saw photos of their own deceased children on the screen. “I was devastated,” said Monica. After the October crash, the Truebloods received many calls and notes. “It meant a lot to us,” Monica said.
Years before the accident, Monica had cross-stitched the poem “Footprints in the Sand.” In it, Jesus explains that when two sets of footprints turn into one, He is carrying someone whose burden has grown too heavy.
“I believe in my heart that what got me through was putting myself in God’s hands,” said Monica. “Without that, I couldn’t have done it. I pray for strength to get through every day.”

Higher risk, higher premiums

Source: Kevin Kirwan, Farmers' Insurance

Ride along

The Woodstock Police Department patrols the streets around Marian Central Catholic High School and Woodstock High School. Especially after school, officers watch for speeding, driver distraction, squealing of tires, disobeying stop signs and seatbelt usage. To prepare for this article, reporter Susan W. Murray rode with then-Beat 21 Officer Charles Vorderer, WHS Resource Officer Josh Fourdyce and Beat 23 Officer Fred Eiselstein. This is a summary of those ride-alongs.
Vorderer set a goal last April to reduce traffic accidents around Marian by 50 percent. To that end, he made frequent after-school passes through Marian's parking lot and often sat at Hickman Avenue and Route 120, using a radar gun. His effort met with some success. There were four traffic accidents in the area in the period from April through Decembe,r, 2006. In the same period in 2007, there were three accidents.
As a Beat 21 officer, Vorderer patrolled the quadrant east of Route 47 and north of Country Club Road. Between 1 and 3 p.m., said Vorderer “is the busiest time of the day.” Consequently, he could not concentrate his efforts on Marian every day.
On the December day of the ride-along, Vorderer sat on Hickman Avenue and pointed the radar gun at students' cars as they exited Marian's parking lot onto Broadway Avenue. “They speed up to the stop sign as fast as they can,” said Vorderer. On that day, however, he caught no speeders.
When school day ends at Woodstock High School, Fourdyce sits in his squad car, facing Putnam Street. On the day of the November ride-along, Foudyce observed a white Ford Explorer speeding down Putnam, 15 minutes after school dismissed – long enough that the congestion on Putnam had cleared. Fourdyce pulled out of the school parking lot and followed the driver, who then failed to stop at the stop sign at Putnam Street and Forest Avenue. Fourdyce pulled the female driver over on Forest. “My horses are sick; I had to get home,” she told him.
Because the squad car Fourdyce had that day was not equipped with radar, Fourdyce gave the driver a warning on speeding and an additional warning for having an expired proof of insurance card. She received a $75 ticket for ignoring a stop sign. The driver was the 21-year-old sister of a WHS student, who had just picked up her sister from school.
“In a school zone, there's absolutely no reason not to obey a stop sign, especially when there's a crosswalk there,” said Fourdyce. He added that the driver was very apologetic. “That's probably one person who won't do it again,” he said.
Eiselstein generally patrols the area around WHS every other day, depending on other activity within his quadrant, west of Route 47 and south of South Street. When weather permits, he patrols on bicycle. Often, he is joined by the department's traffic car.
Eiselstein divides his time between sitting at Stewart Avenue and Gould Street and driving up and down the adjacent streets to let students know he is out. On the day of the November ride-along, he observed a gold Saturn roll through a stop sign and Forest and Blakely Street. Eiselstein ticketed the driver, a WHS student, with disobeying a stop sign, not using a turn signal and driving too fast for conditions on the rainy afternoon. “The ticket sends a message to the kids,” Eiselstein said. “She will tell her friends about it.”

New Illinois Laws

Permit Phase Drivers Age 15

   • Parent/guardian consent required to obtain an instruction permit.
   • Must be enrolled in an approved driver education course, and must pass vision and written exams.
   • A nighttime driving restriction is in place Sunday-Thursday, 10 p.m-6 a.m., and Friday-Saturday, 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. (local curfews may differ from the nighttime driving restriction).
   • Permit must be held for a minimum of nine months.
   • Must practice driving a minimum of 50 hours, including 10 hours of nighttime driving, supervised by a parent or adult age 21 or older with a valid driver's license.
   • Must not acquire any driving convictions during the nine-month permit phase.
   • Number of passengers limited to one in the front seat and the number of safety belts in the back seat.
   • All occupants under age 19 must wear safety belts.
   • Cell phone use while driving is prohibited except in the case of an emergency to contact a law enforcement agency, health care provider or emergency services agency.
   • Permit is valid for up to two years.

Sanctions

   • Limit of one court supervision for serious driving offenses. To obtain court supervision, driver must appear in person before the presiding court with a parent or legal guardian and must also attend traffic safety school.
   • Conviction of a moving violation results in a nine-month waiting period before applying for a driver's license.
   • Not eligible for any hardship permit.
   • Anyone caught driving without a permit will be ineligible to obtain a driver's license until age 18.

Initial Licensing Phase - Drivers Age 16 to 17

   • Parent/guardian must certify that a minimum of 50 hours of practice driving, including 10 hours of nighttime driving, has been completed.
   • Parent/guardian must accompany teen to provide written consent to obtain a driver's license, OR complete and notarize an Affidavit/Consent For Minor to Drive form.
   • Must have completed a state-approved driver education course.
   • A nighttime driving restriction is in place Sunday-Thursday, 10 p.m-6 a.m., and Friday-Saturday, 11 p.m.-6 a.m. (local curfews may differ from the nighttime driving restriction).
   • Must maintain a conviction-free driving record for six months prior to turning age 18 before moving to the Full Licensing Phase. A traffic conviction during the initial licensing phase may extend restrictions beyond age 18.
   • All occupants under age 19 must wear safety belts.
   • For the first year of licensing, or until the driver is age 18, whichever occurs first, the number of passengers is limited to one person under age 20, unless the additional passenger(s) is a sibling, step-sibling, child, or step-child of the driver. After this period, the number of passengers is limited to one in the front seat and the number of safety belts in the back seat.
   • Cell phone use while driving is prohibited except in the case of an emergency to contact a law enforcement agency, health care provider or emergency services agency.

Sanctions

   • Limit one court supervision for serious offenses. To obtain court supervision, a driver must appear in person before the presiding court with a parent or legal guardian and must also attend traffic safety school.
   • Conviction of any moving violation before age 18 generates a Secretary of State warning letter to the parent and teenager.
   • Two moving violation convictions occurring within a 24-month period results in a minimum one-month driver's license suspension. Suspension length is determined by the seriousness of the offenses and the driver's prior driving history. An additional driver's license suspension will result for each subsequent moving violation following the initial suspension.
   • Any moving violation conviction that occurs within the first year of licensure will result in a six-month extension of the passenger limitation, which allows no more than one unrelated passenger under age 20.
   • Suspended drivers are required to attend a remedial education course, may be retested and must pay a $70 reinstatement fee.

Full Licensing Phase - Drivers 18 to 20

   • No age-related restrictions apply except in cases where a driver fails to move from the Initial Licensing Phase to the Full Licensing Phase. Cell phone use while driving for persons under age 19 is prohibited except in the case of an emergency to contact a law enforcement agency, health care provider or emergency services agency.

Sanctions

   • Limit one court supervision for serious offenses.
   • Two moving violation convictions occurring within a 24-month period results in a minimum one-month driver's license suspension. Suspension length is determined by the seriousness of the offenses and the driver's prior driving history. An additional driver's license suspension will result for each subsequent moving violation following the initial suspension.