The Potential Savings Behind GDL Laws

Last decade, car crashes were the leading cause of teen deaths, with 16-year-old drivers possessing crash rates two times greater than 18-to-19-year-old drivers and four times that of older drivers. But Allstate and the National Safety Council think they know how to cut into the 81,000 fatalities resulting from crashes involving teen drivers between 2000 and 2009, claiming in a new report that nationwide GDL laws have the potential to prevent over 2,000 such deaths and save $13.6 billion annually.

The potential lives saved are projections based on a 2007 study, which analyzed the effect of state-level GDL programs to produce percentage reductions with respect to fatalities and dollars saved per state. The percentages from that study were applied to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's estimate of the number of young driver-related fatalities.

The 2007 study broke down percentage reductions by the number of GDL components in place:

1. States with one GDL component implemented experience 4 percent fewer fatal crashes,
2. States with two or three GDL components implemented experience 10 percent fewer fatal crashes,
3. States with four GDL components implemented experience 21 percent fewer fatal crashes,
4. States with five GDL components implemented experience 38 percent fewer fatal crashes.

 
Since 2007, several states have added sixth or seventh elements to their GDL laws.

In addition to fatalities, the total cost of crashes involving teen drivers in 2009 was an estimated $38.3 billion. According to the report, these costs include wage and productivity losses, medical expenses, administrative expenses for public and private insurance, police and legal costs, motor vehicle damage, employers' uninsured costs and fire losses. Allstate and the NSC claim comprehensive GDL policies would reduce the 2009 figure by more than 35 percent.

Allstate and the NSC released the “License to Save” report partially to encourage politicians to take a hard look at comprehensive GDL policies at the national level as congress gets ready to consider the reauthorization of highway and infrastructure spending—legislation that historically has included bold public health and safety measures, according to Allstate.

"Our elected officials do not have many opportunities during their careers to take action that will save thousands of lives and billions of dollars in one legislative action,” said Janet Froetscher, president and CEO of the National Safety Council. “This is one of those times."