Photo by Ricky Riley / VOX Staff

Joshua Brown was a teenager with a bright future. He enjoyed sports, but his true passion was music. He played the drums and the guitar, and had dreams of becoming rich and famous. After graduating from Cartersville High School, he planned to go to a music school in Boston to fulfill his quest for greatness. Joshua couldn’t foresee anything getting in his way. 

On July 1, 2003, Joshua was driving his pickup truck down a two-lane highway, heading home from his family’s Cingular store. Like they often do in Georgia, the skies opened up, and the rain began to pour down heavily on the road. It made the asphalt slippery, so slippery that the tires barely held on. The truck hit a pool of standing water and began to hydroplane, and Joshua’s first reaction was to step down hard on the brake. It was the wrong reaction. The truck slid out of control and crashed into a tree.

Joshua was badly injured, and for days he struggled to stay alive. His injuries proved to be too severe, and he passed away on July 9. Joshua was just one of 123 teens that died behind the wheel that year.
Joshua’s death was not just another teen tragedy caused by goofing around or driving under the influence of alcohol. It was caused by a lack of experience. According to the Allstate Foundation Teen Safe Driving Program, 77 percent of fatal crashes among 16-year-old drivers — the group with the least experience on the road — result from driver’s error. Meanwhile, speeding is involved in only 38 percent of these traffic fatalities and alcohol less than 25 percent.

Nationwide, nearly 6,000 teenagers of all ages die in car accidents every year. “The car is a weapon, and in inexperienced hands it can be deadly” said Alan Brown, Joshua’s father. Since his son’s death, Brown has made it his life’s mission to protect young drivers by calling for stricter driver training requirements and improving educational programs in the state of Georgia and beyond. “In order to save teenage lives, there must be a change,” Brown said.

This coming January, “Joshua’s Law” will go into effect throughout Georgia. It started off as a bill that Brown and his wife crafted and brought to the Georgia state legislature, where it was voted into law in 2005. “Joshua’s Law” mandates that, as of Jan. 1, 2007, all 16 year olds wanting to get their licenses must complete a state-approved driver education program and have 40 hours of other adult-supervised driving, including six hours at night. If they don’t meet these requirements, they must wait until they are 17 to apply for a license. Previously, driver’s education was recommended by the state, but not mandatory. All the training you had to have to get your license was a signed statement from a parent or adult guardian that confirmed you had 40 hours of supervised driving, including six hours at night.

However, “Joshua’s Law” does build on Georgia’s attempts to reduce teen accidents. In July 1997, Georgia introduced the Teenage and Adult Driver Responsibility Act , which imposed graduated licensing for new drivers that enacted restrictions until they turn 18 years old. TADRA mandated three licensing stages, starting with an instructional permit for 15 year olds that they can get after passing a written examination. This stage requires an adult passenger 21 years or older with a valid license to accompany such drivers. When teens have held an instruction permit for at least 12 months and have received the mandated driver’s education requirements and have passed a driver’s test, they are considered intermediate drivers and hold a Class “D” license. This licensing stage prohibits driving between the hours of midnight and 6 a.m. and with any non-family members under the age of 21 for the first six months. At age 18 or older, drivers can then obtain a full Class “C” license as long as they have not incurred any major traffic violations, including DUIs, in the preceding 12 months.

Last year, Governor Sonny Perdue reported that TADRA reduced the number of driver fatal crashes for 16 year olds by 36.8 percent. TADRA’s graduated licensing rules will remain once “Joshua Law’s” goes into effect.
 
Driver’s Ed Dread
Stricter requirements for driver’s education means that teens must find appropriate places to get their training. Unfortunately, it has become very cost prohibitive for school systems to run full-fledged driver’s ed programs anymore. Maintaining and operating cars and driving simulators is expensive. DeKalb County Schools is one of the few systems in the Atlanta metro area that offers free classes that meet Georgia’s standards. And these free classes often have a long waiting list.
Another provision of “Joshua’s Law” adds 5 percent to state-wide traffic violation fines to fund the purchase of modern driver’s education equipment for Georgia’s public high schools. “Even those schools that can afford to offer driver’s ed usually have old, outdated simulators and other equipment,” Brown said.

But until this new source of funding kicks in  —  which could take several years — teens are faced with the steep price of private instruction if they want to drive at age 16. Costs for private driver’s ed courses range from $300 to $500 in the Atlanta area. Even school systems such as Forsyth County that have teamed up with private driving programs like Pruitt’s Driving School can’t offer students much of a discount. Parents pay up to $425 at Pruitt’s to get their kids such an education.

So, what do you actually learn in an approved driver’s ed program? Most programs offer 30 hours of classroom time and six hours of one-on-one driving instruction. Some driving schools have simulators to make classroom time more practical than simply watching movies, reading books and taking tests.

But others come up short and have none, so you have to be careful what private driving instruction company you and your parents choose. Be sure to ask if an operation has simulators — and how new they are.

The Safe America Foundation, headquartered in Marietta, in addition to promoting safe teen driving nationwide, offers a standard driver’s ed program that’s licensed by the state as well as advanced training opportunities. “Our classroom time isn’t just about reading textbooks on driving,” said Len Pagano, Safe America’s president. “We teach teens a lot of valuable, practical skills such as how to change flat tires and how to properly maintain their cars.”

Safe America teaches a basic driver’s ed course for $399 at two locations. The classroom portion of the course is conducted in two 15-hour blocks on consecutive weekends. The road portion of the course consists of three two-hour sessions scheduled by the student and instructor.

Safe America’s simulation driving training curriculum gives teens six additional hours of experience reacting to advanced traffic situations, Pagano said. “A driver makes more than 200 decisions per mile,” he said. “Teens need to be trained to be alert for not only their own decisions, but the decisions of other drivers on the road. Our state-of-the-art simulators and techniques help teens cope with the three main causes of death and injury on the road – speed, inexperience and distractions.” These six hours of simulated driving may cost an extra $69 but give parents peace of mind.

“The price of driver’s education may seem high, but it pays for itself quickly,” Pagano said. “Having completed a driver’s ed program gives you a 10 percent decrease in car insurance costs for drivers under the age of 25 and a $150 tax credit to parents.”

At least one teen who has taken a driver’s ed course doesn’t necessarily think it works. Nzingha Mogerie survived a fatal car crash that changed her view of driving and how she learned to drive. “I really only learned parallel parking,” she said. “I did not learn defensive driving and it nearly cost me my life.”

Alan Brown said that making sure driver’s ed programs actually teach vital driving skills is another important part of the law and foundation named for his son. “‘Joshua’s Law’ was just the start of the changes that needed to be made to make teen drivers better prepared for what they’ll face on Georgia roads,” he said.
 
Ricky is a junior at Southwest DeKalb High.