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Abstract
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Passing a driving test is no longer required for adolescents to obtain a driver's license in a number of U.S. states, including Georgia, Wisconsin, and Texas, owing to the COVID-19pandemic. Adolescents in these states who have held a learner permit and completed the hours of supervised practice driving required by Graduated Driver Licensing laws are eligible to obtain a license to drive independently with the consent of their parent or guardian. Licensing agencies appear to have taken this extraordinary step to minimize the risks of COVID-19 transmission. In doing so, they have traded one public health threat for another. Rather than stop testing, states could take effective precautions to minimize transmission of COVID-19 and simultaneously reduce the risks posed to adolescents from motor vehicle crashes.
To appreciate the scale of the problem, it is worth noting that crashes are the leading cause of death for adolescents in the United States. In 2018, the latest year for which data are available, 3,070 adolescents aged 15-19 years were killed in crashes. This age group is overrepresented in crash deaths, making up 6.4% of the overall U.S. population, but was involved in 12.8% of fatal crashes in 2017. Among newly licensed adolescents, approximately one third crash in the first year of driving. Crashes pose a danger to the adolescents who are driving, their passengers (who tend to be young people), and all other road users (who are typically adults). Inexperience and poor judgment, rather than deliberate risk taking, are widely recognized as the cause of adolescent drivers' elevated crash risk.
The driving test represents an important symbolic step in the process of becoming a driver. The safety benefit of the driving test comes primarily from the perceived seriousness of the event and the importance that this confers to the right to drive on public roads, rather than from its ability to effectively screen unsafe drivers. This public perception may be eroded if the driving test is eliminated, and this could be interpreted by some as a "free pass" to independent licensure. Rather than suspending the test altogether, licensing agencies should adopt appropriate precautions to minimize the risk of transmission of COVID-19. These include ensuring sufficient ventilation within the vehicle either by opening the windows or allowing for air intake from outside. Both the examiner and adolescent should wear masks and gloves, and high contact surfaces within the vehicle should be sanitized before and after the test. Another configuration could be to modify the test so that it takes place on a closed track where the examiner remains outside of the vehicle and instructs the adolescent to complete a series of driving maneuvers, as Maryland has carried out.
For parents and guardians of adolescents, the suspension of the driving test raises challenging questions. In the absence of any guidance, they have been placed in the position of assessing their adolescent's readiness to drive...
Keywords: CoViD-19-Road-Traffic
Language: en |