Rep. Joseph McNamara (D-Warwick) sponsored the graduated driver licensing law back in 1996 and continues to be involved in teen driving issues.

The Providence Journal / Sandor Bodo

While Rhode Island ranks worst on its drinking and driving laws and only fair on its seat belt laws, it ranks among the highest for its graduated driver license program, according to a “Warning: Teen Drivers,” special report on teenage drivers conducted by Reader’s Digest and printed in its August issue.

However, Rhode Island legal experts say the state’s laws take civil liberties into account with protections against sobriety checkpoints and a primary seat belt law.

And Rhode Island also has one of the best records for the annual number of teen deaths per 100,000 kids, along with Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York and New Jersey, which had the fewest among the states at 9 per 100,000. The rate in Rhode Island is 11.4.

By contrast, the states with high levels of teen deaths on the roads were Arkansas, Missouri, Alabama, Montana, Wyoming and Mississippi, which was the worst with a rate of 35.1 teen deaths per 100,000 kids.

Reader’s Digest Deputy Editor Andrea Barbalich said that was not a surprise, because roads in unpopulated areas tend to have higher speed limits, which result in dramatic accidents. In addition, it often takes a long time for emergency personnel to get to the site of an accident in unpopulated areas compared with built-up states such as Rhode Island where help is usually only minutes away.

“States with the most rural roads will not do as well,” she said.

Basing its data on various sources, Reader’s Digest also assembled the “Anatomy of a Teen Car Accident,” in which it tracked a fictitious train of seemingly banal developments between 8 and 9 p.m. one Saturday evening and how much they can each contribute to the chance of having an accident.

At 8 p.m., a 17-year-old speeds to his friends house (speeding is a factor in 35 percent of crash deaths involving young drivers); calls her on his cell phone on the way (increases risks by 300 percent); picks her up (adding a passenger increases the risk by 48 percent); picks up a second passenger (increases risk by 158 percent); fiddles with the radio (87 percent of teen road deaths involve distraction); goes to a drive-through (eating and driving causes 2 percent of teen crashes) and suddenly realizes he is tired (nearly half of teens are sleep deprived and young drivers cause 55 percent of fatigue-related crashes).

Finally, the chart states that teens are three times more likely to die in a car crash between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. than during the day.

Fired by the obstinate statistic that some 5,000 teens kill themselves on the highways every year, Barbalich said Reader’s Digest decided to look at laws and education. She said the article was “six months in the making, from idea to publishing.”

“The number of deaths is steady around 5,000 a year (even though) cars have gotten safer,” she said, adding, “The most dangerous age is 16.”

Reader’s Digest compared state laws affecting teenage drivers, comparing those addressing DUI, or drinking under the influence, seat belts and GDL, or graduated driver licenses. It then graded the states accordingly, assigning grades of Best, Good, Fair and Worst. Rhode Island ranked worst largely because of its DUI laws.

Barbalich said although the state differentiates between adults and underage drinkers, assigning a blood alcohol content of 0.08 percent as being too impaired to drive for adults and 0.02 percent for underage drivers, the methodology of the study deducted points for permitting any level of alcohol in the blood.

Rep. Joseph M. McNamara (D-Cranston, Warwick) agrees.

“I believe it sends the wrong message to kids,” he said of the 0.02 percent rule. “Kids know they can drink a glass of beer and still drive.”

He said he had introduced legislation that would have outlawed “any discernible trace of alcohol.” But he said it did not pass, partly because experts testified that the margin for error in measuring for blood alcohol content is 0.2 percent.

McNamara has devoted much of his public life to making the roads safer through legislation, including sponsoring the graduated driver license law in 1996, which has generally proved to be one of the most effective measures in terms of saving teenage lives on the roads.

A 2006 study by John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Medicine, for example, found graduated driver licensing reduces fatal crashed by 11 percent.

Rhode Island also gets a low mark because it does not conduct sobriety check points.

But McNamara said there are constitutional problems with stopping people with no probable cause.

“It’s a very difficult sell,” he said. “Many, many people believe it is unconstitutional.”

Steve Brown, executive director of the Rhode Island Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, agreed.

“I think there are lots of just reasons Rhode Island does not have sobriety road blocks,” Brown said. He said it was unconstitutional “to stop hundreds, thousands of people without probable cause in the hope of finding someone drunk.”

He said there are alternatives such as roving patrols that travel around on the lookout for erratic drivers.

Reader’s Digest gave Rhode Island fair marks for its seat belt laws, which state that the driver and “any passenger 13 years of age or older, in any seating position, shall be transported properly wearing a safety belt and/or shoulder harness system.”

However, Barbalich said the report included the same constitutional protection against searches without probable cause that affected our DUI laws.

Reader’s Digest cited seat belts as the single most important safety feature, but Barbalich said Rhode Island has “no primary enforcement of its seat belt law.”

In other words, Rhode Island drivers cannot be pulled over simply for not wearing their seat belts. “They can be pulled over for another reason, such as speeding,” and then be cited for not wearing a seat belt, she said.

But McNamara said primary seat belt laws can give police officers an excuse to pull people over and that can lead to problems of selection.

“There is an inevitable arbitrariness on enforcement,” said Brown. “Probably 1 in 5 cars driving by are violating the (seat belt) law. What cars are going to be stopped?”

“We have no objection per se to seat belt laws, but we do (have an objection) in making them a primary offense.

As far as our graduated driver license law, Rhode Island fares very well.

“You have some very good provisions,” said Barbalich, citing “not allowing learners’ permits until the driver is 16, limiting passengers to one, no cell phone use and restrictions on night driving.”

Although she added that allowing learners to be out until 1 a.m. was problematic. “One a.m., that’s pretty late,” she said.

Rhode Island also insists on at least 50 hours of supervised driving, 10 of which should be at night.

McNamara not only sponsored the original bill in 1996, but has been instrumental in adding provisions to it over the years, including restrictions on passengers, the six-month learner permit, limiting passengers to one non-related person and increasing the number of supervised hours of driving before taking the final licensing test.

He said he supports greater parental involvement in the driver education process,” with “parents coming into driver education classes.”

In a serious of chapters, Reader’s Digest advised parents to Teach your Kids, Fight for Stricter State Laws and Get Tough at Home by establishing your own limits on teenage drivers.

For more information, go to:

rd.com (and search for “Special Report: Teen Drivers at Risk”)

pelsworth@projo.com