Texas tightens teen driving laws

The laws for teenage drivers are getting tougher.

Drivers younger than 18 are banned from using cell phones while driving and must spend twice as long practicing driving before getting a license, according to a new law that goes into effect Sept. 1. The law applies to teens getting a license on or after that date.

"A 16-year-old on a cell phone's reaction time is that of a 70-year-old," said Brett Arterburn, chief of police in Pottsboro, north of Dallas.

Arterburn worked with a Pottsboro community group, Less Tears … More Years, to get the teen driving law revised after two teens in his community died in traffic accidents. Arterburn said he was disturbed when he found that high school football players practice more before a game than teens practice driving before they can earn a license.

It is vital that new drivers minimize distractions as they are gaining experience on the road, said Becky Rendon, director of health services for the North East Independent School District. Rendon, whose 16-year-old daughter recently got her license, said she considers cell phone use while driving a major public health problem for all drivers.

"You have to have your eyes on the road at all times," Rendon said.

Car crashes are the leading cause of death for teens in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A survey by Allstate Insurance Company showed 88 percent of teens talk or text on their phone while driving and 33 percent have gotten in a car accident during the first year they have their license. The survey also said that summer is the deadliest time of the year for teens when an average of about 15 teens die per day.

Eighteen-year-old Celina Quilantan, who recently graduated from Warren High School, nearly ended up as another statistic last year.

"I had my first car accident when I was 17 because a man was on his cell phone and wasn't paying attention," Quilantan said. She was driving on the highway when a middle-aged man talking on a phone hit her car. She spun across the highway into the shoulder of the other lane into oncoming traffic.

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