NJ Teen Safe Driving Coalition Keeping Teen Drivers Safe

Steve Adubato talks with Andy Anderson, leader of the New Jersey Teen Safe Driving Coalition, about how the organization is working to keep teenagers safe while driving on New Jersey’s busy roads and highways.

#1918 11/9/2016

Excerpt:

"Welcome to One on One. I'm Steve Adubato. We are pleased to welcome Mister Andy Anderson, who is a retired detective with the Essex County Prosecutor's Office with the Vehicular Homicide Unit, and today the leader of the Teen Safe Driving Coalition of New Jersey. Andy, thank you for joining us. Thank you, thank you for having me. Talk about the Teen Safe Driving Coalition of New Jersey. What is it? And why does it matter so much? Well the Teen Safe Driving Coalition of New Jersey was an offshoot of the Governor Corzine's Teen Driving Coalition that we had back in the 2007. Right. There was a rash of teen crashes and it became almost like an epidemic in New Jersey, and Governor Corzine recognized that we needed to do something about it. Pam Fischer at the time was the director of highway traffic safety. Right. He tasked her with coming up with a commission. That commission was a fifteen member panel that dealt with, or looked at our New Jersey graduated drivers license laws and came up and made them better out that coalition. It was fifteen members, I was lucky enough to be asked to be one of those fifteen people. Hmm. So right now, and let me ask you, and our friends at New Jersey Manufacturers, Bernie Flynn and the team down there have been talking to us about this, and others are concerned about it as well, but I'm curious, how bad is the problem with teen driving? It's the number one killer of teens in... across the country. And, especially... and also in New Jersey. What are the causes? The cost? The main cause... no, the main causes, we'll talk about the cost, primarily life. It's not a question of them being bad drivers, alright, they're inexperienced. Driving is probably the most dangerous thing we do every single day. Hmm. And the idea that we can just license someone, put them out on the road, and be out there with everyone and expect them to be good at this, I mean it's on the job training, that's the only way you learn how to drive, and you get exposed to all of these risks. So what we want to do is focus on minimizing those risks as they get that education, as they get that training. Break that down, what are we talking about? And by the way, all of us who are parents of young people who are now driving, and those who will be driving in the future, are listening intently. Because that's when it becomes on your radar, when it's now your child is going to be out there. Literally our son is turning fourteen, and my wife said to me yesterday..."