Giving teens a brake: stricter laws for teenage drivers have helped prevent injuries and save lives.

• Author: Savage, Melissa

Colorado--A 17-year-old girl is charged with careless driving after crashing into a car pulled over with a flat tire and severely injuring the two teenage boys who were changing it. The boys, both on the high school wrestling team, lose their legs. Utah--A 19-year-old driver's car veers off the road and hits a tree. The teen is pronounced dead at the hospital.

Florida--A teenage driver runs over and kills a fifth grader walking to school.

Missouri A teen passenger is severely injured in a crash when the teen driver loses control of the car, swerves over the center line and hits another car head on.

Virginia--A teen driver is headed to court after killing one of his passengers in a crash resulting from driving at more than 100 mph.

South Carolina--Two toddlers and a 12-year-old are critically injured after riding in a SUV that the 15-year-old driver crashed into a tree.

Crashes like these are common on highways and streets across the country. Motor vehicle wrecks claim the lives of more teens than does any other accident or illness, more than cancer and more than drowning. This plague affecting teens is nothing new--it's been a problem for years. But stricter laws covering drivers in this age group have allowed for progress in cutting back the number of teen deaths and injuries.

Beginning in the mid-1990s state legislatures began passing driver's licensing laws aimed at teens. Under these laws young people acquire their licenses through a gradual process. The laws vary greatly. According to AAA, 43 states and the District of Columbia have three-stage graduated driver's licensing laws for teens. The automobile association says the other seven states lack either an intermediate licensing stage or a mandatory learner's permit.

States have concentrated on strengthening licensing procedures for teen drivers in the past few years, restricting passengers, nighttime driving and cell phone use. In addition, lawmakers have lengthened the minimum period to hold a learner's permit and extended the entire graduated driver's licensing program.

A STEP FURTHER

Illinois has taken teen licensing a step further. Although the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has rated the Illinois graduated driver's licensing law as "good," it wasn't good enough for Jesse White, the Illinois secretary of state. Inspired by a series of articles by the Chicago Tribune focusing on the toll of deadly teen crashes, White formed the Illinois Teen Driver Safety Task Force. Made...