According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2009, emergency nurses like me and my colleagues at the Emergency Nurses Association (ENA) treated more than 350,000 teenagers for injuries they suffered in motor vehicle crashes.  Fortunately, most of them survived the crashes, but some didn’t.  That same year, more than 2,300 young drivers ages 15-20 were killed in motor vehicle crashes.  Crashes involving young drivers also claimed the lives of nearly 3,300 other people in 2009, including passengers riding with young drivers, people in other vehicles, pedestrians, bicyclists and others. Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for U.S. teenagers, in fact, they’re four times more likely than older drivers to have a crash.  One of the hardest things about being an emergency nurse is telling a parent that his or her son or daughter has died.  It doesn’t have to be that way.

There’s legislation right now in Congress that would help states protect the lives of teenagers and other people they share the roads with.  The Safe Teen and Novice Driver Uniform Protection Act (STANDUP Act) has been introduced in both the U.S. House (H.R. 1515) and Senate (S. 528).  This bill would establish minimum federal requirements for state Graduated Drivers Licensing (GDL) laws and encourage all states to adopt such laws.  Research shows that GDL laws do save lives.  In states that have adopted strong GDL systems, studies have found overall crash reductions among teen drivers of up to 40 percent.

GDL laws are among the laws that ENA includes in our bi-annual National Scorecard on State Roadway Laws, which reviews the roadway safety laws that each state has that are proven to reduce or prevent injuries and deaths.  As of the publication of our 2010 Scorecard, only 19 states and the District of Columbia had GDL laws that addressed all four criteria identified by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) as important for such laws: a six month holding period at the learner’s stage; a requirement for 30-50 hours of supervised driving at the learner’s stage; a nighttime restriction at the intermediate stage; and a limit of only one passenger under age 20 at the intermediate stage.

The STANDUP Act is a commonsense and practical solution to encouraging states to enact laws that save lives.  The law would require states to have three stages of licensing: learner’s permit, intermediate and full licensure.  It also includes provisions as strong or stronger than those identified by NHTSA, including a prohibition on driving while using wireless communication devices (such as cell phones) until a driver has full licensure at age 18.  (The ENA Scorecard also includes distracted driving laws.)

The STANDUP Act would reduce motor vehicle crashes, save teenage lives, prevent injuries and fatalities on our roadways and also reduce the costs associated with roadway crashes.  Young people ages 15 to 24 account for a total of $26 billion of the total cost associated with motor vehicle injuries.  Those are just the financial costs.  The worry, pain, grief and sadness are immeasurable.

You can do your part to help prevent crashes and save teenage lives by contacting your U.S. Representative and Senators and encouraging them to co-sponsor or support the STANDUP Act.  You can look up their office email addresses at www.house.gov and www.senate.gov or call the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 to be connected to their offices.

AnnMarie Papa is President of the Emergency Nurses Association and Clinical Director of the Emergency Department at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.  She has been an emergency nurse for 33 years.