USA Today, which is among the country’s most widely circulated publications, recently quoted NYRA’s Executive Director in an article on teen driving. Specifically, the article dealt with a report put out by the National Highway Safety Administration, which presented a biased, anti-youth interpretation of driving fatality statistics aimed at convincing states to make seventeen the age at which young people can have full driving “privileges.”
The study never looked at whether or not teen driving restrictions shift fatalities to the next demographic, which was among the findings of a study conducted by Dr. Mike Males at UC-Santa Cruz. The NHSA study merely points out the obvious, that if you keep people from driving they will be involved in fewer accidents. The study takes that fact and frames it as an argument for limiting the rights of young people. As NYRA Executive Director Alex Koroknay-Palicz said, “Our society is dependent on cars, to have driving stripped away from young people is discriminating.” This is the second time NYRA has appeared in a USA Today related to youth driving. This quote will expose many thousands of people to our perspective. The full article can be read here.
