ALBANY — A new law intended to reduce the carnage on the roads caused by teenage

drivers took effect Monday, but safety experts say it can work only if police — and

parents — enforce it.

The law sharply increases the number of training hours for teen drivers, prohibits teens

from getting their licenses less than six months after applying for a permit and, perhaps most

importantly, reduces to one the number of nonfamily teen passengers permitted in a car driven

by a teenager.

"When people learn that motor vehicle crashes are the No. 1 cause of death to people in the

16 to 20 age group, and they really focus on that, then they understand what this is all

about: a systematic change to make everybody make the right decisions," said Judith Stone,

president of Advocates for Highway Safety, an alliance of consumer, health and insurance

groups.

The State Legislature overwhelmingly approved the changes last summer.

The new law increases to 50 from 20 the number of hours a teen must be trained —

often with a parent — before being able to apply for a road test. Also, 15 of those

hours must be after sunset.

Gone is a teen's ability to get a permit and then apply for a road test within a few weeks.

Now, the permit must be held a minimum of six months.

But many consider this provision to be the most important: Only one nonfamily passenger

under age 21 is permitted in a car driven by a driver under age 18 when not accompanied by a

licensed parent or guardian.

"Of all the new provisions, the passenger restriction is probably the most helpful," Stone

said. "It's just less distraction. When you allow two passengers in a car in addition to the

teen driver, you've got a party going on. Now, it will be down to one, and it's just not as

distracting, and distraction for the beginning teen driver is a huge problem because they have

enough to worry about, and to add layer upon layer of distraction is just unsafe."

The only exception, which safety experts criticize, is for 17-year-olds who have completed

an approved driver's education course.

Federal and insurance studies have shown dramatic fatal crash rate increases for every

additional passenger in a car driven by a teen.

State lawmakers began a push several years ago to tighten teen driving laws, but partisan

squabbling slowed the efforts. A number of high-profile, fatal crashes, including some in

Western New York, forced the sides to come together last summer.

"The ultimate goal is to reduce the number of crashes and fatalities in the 16- to

17-year-old age group," added David J. Swarts, state commissioner of motor vehicles.

Citing one study, Swarts said states with such teen driving laws can expect crash rates

among 16-year-old drivers to drop as much as 38 percent.

The Department of Motor Vehicles has begun alerting police about the new law, which carries

such penalties as suspended licenses. Violators also risk higher insurance premiums.

But safety advocates say parents will be key to making the law work. It also will give

parents a new way to say no when teen drivers want to pack a car with friends.

"A lot of parents ask those questions: Who's going to be with you? Where you going? But if

the law now says you can't have any more than one passenger, [that allows] parents to say,

"No, you can't do it. You can't go and pick up those three friends because it is against the

law,' " Stone said.

"Parents have to give consent to 16- and 17-year-olds to drive, and they can withdraw it at

any time. That's huge leverage," Swarts added.

The statistics are sobering.

A 16-year-old driver is three times more likely to be in an accident than a 17-year-old,

and five times more likely than an 18-year-old, according to the National Highway

Transportation Safety Administration.

And while 16- to 20-year-olds represent just 9 percent of all licensed drivers, they

account for one-fifth of fatal crashes.

In this state, according to the most recent statistics, about 300 teen drivers died and

more than 28,000 were injured in 2008. That does not include the 250 passengers or other

drivers who died and 49,000 injured in accidents involving teen drivers.

Safety advocates say the state should increase the full license age to 18 and not permit

drivers to get an adult license at 17 based solely on having completed a driver's education

program. They also side with efforts to make the texting while driving ban a primary

enforcement law for police.

"We're just very confident that we will see reductions in crashes and fatalities," Swarts

said of the new law.

Another provision of the law took effect Nov. 1: a ban on portable electronic devices by

all drivers. That is intended to get drivers to stop text messaging while driving.

But that prohibition includes a sizable loophole: It permits only "secondary" enforcement,

meaning police could issue tickets for texting while driving only after charging another

infraction, such as speeding or running a light.

The results have been underwhelming: Only about 200 tickets have been issued to drivers for

violating the portable device ban, state officials say.

Swarts says lackluster enforcement of the law has led his department to lobby for allowing

police to issue tickets for texting even when the officers have not witnessed another

infraction.