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Decals for cars with young drivers widely opposed
When Samantha Nichols drove a car for the first time Thursday, she complied with the state law requiring red decals on the car’s license plates to show that a new driver was behind the wheel.
Nichols, an Egg Harbor Township High School student, said she will follow the decal law, but she expects that she is a rarity among teenagers. She said her cousins and most of her friends have permits or probationary licenses, and they do not use the decals required as part of its graduated driver license, or GDL, program.
A recent Garden State Parkway fatal accident has drawn attention to the GDL law, which also limits new drivers in the number of passengers allowed and the hours when they can drive. Four Mainland Regional High School football players were killed in the Aug. 20 crash of an SUV driven by a 17-year-old. There were seven passengers in the car. Driver Casey Brenner’s restricted license allowed only one other passenger unless a parent also was present.
Fifteen months after New Jersey started requiring license-plate decals as part of its graduated driver license program, the stickers remain enormously unpopular. Interviews with teenagers and parents, as well as an informal survey by a Bergen County assemblyman, show overwhelming opposition to that part of the law. (Froonjian, Press of Atlantic City)
