There's no substitute for experience on the road
GREG BEAN Coda
Last week, there was yet another story in one of our newspapers about a teenager killed in a horrific auto accident.

This time the accident happened in East Brunswick near the Brunswick Square Mall. Dead was 16-year-old Dana Centanni of Middletown. Badly injured was 16-yearold Lindsay Capatasto, also of Middletown. As of Oct. 15, she was still listed in critical condition at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick.

The 17-year-old driver of the automobile, identified as Jason Stein of East Brunswick, and two other passengers - police said there were five people in the car at the time of the crash - were hospitalized but later discharged.

While the accident was still under investigation at the time of this writing, police had not reported evidence that alcohol or other illegal substances were involved. Witnesses described the accident as just that. The driver, who was traveling north on Summerhill Road, apparently lost control of the vehicle and struck a curb, then crashed into a light stanchion at the rear of the mall parking lot.

Tragically, this accident is just the latest in a long string that made the last year one of the deadliest for young drivers in this area in my memory.

There were the three young women killed in an accident in Jackson last month when the 17-year-old driver apparently lost control when it started raining, swerved into the oncoming lane and hit another car. Every passenger in both cars was injured. Kristen O'Hara, 19, of Florida, and Alexandra Tenneriello, 19, and Julie Tracy, 17, both of Jackson - were killed.

There was the frightful accident in January that took the lives of three popular Freehold High School students - Michael Dragonetti, 17, James Warnock, 17, and Andrew Lundy, 16. The accident, which happened when two cars collided on Kozloski Road, also claimed the life of Ruth MacArthur, 68, of Old Bridge.

There have been others, nearly every week it seems - a long list of promising people taken from their friends and families too soon.

As the father of three sons, I can say with certainty that this is the nightmare of every parent of a teenage driver as that child ventures out onto the state's congested and dangerous roads.

In our family, no one was killed or injured, but our children were involved in accidents in their first years of driving that totaled several vehicles. They walked away from those crashes, but only by the grace of God. And they weren't alone in their close calls. I can't think of a single one of their friends who wasn't involved in some sort of automobile accident in their first two years as drivers.

I saw the mangled results of those accidents as they were hauled away to the junkyard, and the memory of all that twisted metal can still keep me awake nights. What can be done to prevent accidents like these from happening? Can anything be done? Maybe.

As a driver with almost 40 years of experience behind the wheel, there is not a week that passes when I'm not faced with at least one situation that requires a splitsecond response in order to avoid a crash.

That might mean reacting instinctively to a skid on a snowy or rain-soaked road. It might mean an instinctive response when a wild driver passes on the right or tries to pass on a dangerous stretch of two-lane blacktop. It might mean an instinctive reaction to the way the vehicle responds when you slam on the brakes. It might mean instinctively looking down the road for potential problems and driving accordingly. If you've been driving for more than a few years, you know exactly what I'm talking about. We rely on our experience to keep us safe, and even that isn't always enough.

Young drivers simply don't have that real-life experience, and it's costing them in blood. In New Jersey, 16- to 17-year-old drivers are required to take a driver's education class in school, or the equivalent, and complete six hours (six hours!) of behindthe wheel training from a certified instructor. After that, they get a learner's permit that allows them to drive for six months in the company of an adult, licensed driver. After that, they are granted a restricted license that limits some of their activities until they turn 18, at which time they can apply for an adult license.

As we have learned, too many deadly accidents occur among drivers in their first year on the road, usually with too many passengers in the car. These drivers often simply faced situations that their experience and driver training did not prepare them for. They did not react instinctively to the hazard, and the results were catastrophic. If you have to stop and think about it in a dangerous spot, it's probably already too late.

Last week, a reporter for one of our Greater Media newspapers wrote about officials in Jackson who are asking parents of children driving with provisional licenses to voluntarily identify their vehicles with a sticker. Not a bad idea, but as part of that story, we spoke with police officer Patrick Mackin, who noted that parents also need to take their young drivers out and let them practice driving in rain and snow, because those are the conditions that commonly cause problems for inexperienced drivers. Mackin's advice makes good sense and could be expanded upon.

I don't have all the answers, but I have a couple of suggestions that might work and save some lives.

I say it's time to increase the amount of behind-the-wheel, on-road training required before learner's permits are granted. Instead of six hours, why not 12 or 18?

And why not - in addition to the extra hours of on-road training - also require that first-year drivers complete a defensivedriving program on a closed course before a conditional license is granted? The course could be a tailored version of the tactical course given to law enforcement officers, and would prepare young drivers to know their vehicles and react instinctively in bad situations.

Granted, programs like that would be expensive, but the sad fact is that this state's roads are too congested and dangerous to allow young drivers the luxury of learning by experience as their parents did.

These days, as the obituaries attest, there's just no margin for error.

Gregory Bean is executive editor of

Greater Media Newspapers. You can reach

him at gbean@gmnews.com.