Georgia law requires drivers under 18 to have at least 40 hours of driving with parental supervision, six of those hours at night. If a teen takes a driver’s education course, parental supervision for driving hours drops to 20 hours, with six of those at night.

Under Georgia’s graduated driver’s license program, called the Teenage and Adult Driver Responsibility Act, drivers under 18 are prohibited from driving between midnight and 6 a.m. For the first six months after obtaining a license, drivers under 18 may only drive with family members. After the first six months, no more than three non-family members under age 21 are allowed in the car.

The graduated license law has helped reduce teen fatalities in the 44 states that have the law. In Georgia, fatal crashes have decreased by more than a third since the law was enacted in 1997, according to a study by Emory University’s Center for Injury Control.

In 2007, Georgia will add Joshua’s Law to its books, requiring any teen under age 17 to take a driver’s education course to obtain a license; otherwise they have to wait until they turn 17. Under this law, a 5 percent levy on all traffic violations in the state will be raised – nearly $10 million per year – to make driver’s education available to every Georgia teen.

Joshua’s Law is the brainchild of Alan Brown, a father who lost his only son, Joshua, in a one-car accident in Cartersville in 2003. Sixteen-year old Joshua was driving on a two-lane highway on a rainy summer day when his pickup hydroplaned and hit a tree. Less than a year after Joshua’s death, Brown took his emotional arsenal of grief and guilt and created the Joshua Brown Foundation, which has been instrumental in bringing high-tech driver’s education to young drivers in Georgia.

While driver’s education may be only part of the solution, counties are recognizing the sheer number of teen deaths and injuries and are responding to it. Many areas offer Teens Ride with P.R.I.D.E. (Parents Reducing Incidents of Driver Error), a free, two-hour course for teens, ages 14-16, and their parents, to help them learn what to do during the parent-supervised driving hours. Driving programs range from police-sponsored defensive-driving courses to private, nonprofit organizations offering crash-avoidance training. Some high schools, like Norcross High School, present mock DUI crash re-enactments for the student body, and some area counties have town hall meetings, where parents, teens, police and school officials meet to talk about preventing teen driving fatalities.

For Lauren Winborne, a mother of six, the reality of teen driving has affected her life since she was in college, when her high school prom date died in a car crash. Two years ago, she founded "It Won’t Happen to Me," a Gwinnett County-based nonprofit organization dedicated to educating teens on the dangers of driving.

"Good kids can make bad decisions," says Winborne. "Everyone thinks it won’t happen to them."

Winborne paired with retired Gwinnett County police officer Bill Richardson to bring their educational, and often graphic, program into the schools. Together they created a book, updated yearly, with photos and stories from the families of Gwinnett County teens who have lost their lives in car crashes.

"All parents know someone who was killed in a car accident," Winborne says. "We tell teens, ‘If you don’t know someone now who has been a victim of a car accident, someday you will.’"

"We need to educate kids with more than just driver’s education," says Richardson, whose approach may have much to do with his on-the-job experiences. The response he has received from parents, however – "I don’t know what you said, but I’ve noticed a change in their driving habits" – proves that teens learn from the tragic images.

Teen driving accidents can be blamed largely on driver error, such as overcorrecting, speeding and inexperience. Combine those with distractions – cell phones, radio and friends – and traffic accidents are inevitable. Drugs and alcohol can also be factors.

"In their first three years of driving, 90 percent of teens will be involved in an accident," says Richard Harkness, a behavioral psychologist and CEO of Advanced Drivers Education Products and Training (ADEPT Driver) Inc., in San Francisco.

What can parents do to help make safer teen drivers?

Woodstock mother Lynn Riley made her message speak loud and clear. She created a magnet for her daughter’s bumper reading: New Driver. Embarrassed at first, her daughter and other teens have found other drivers to be more patient, knowing a new driver is behind the wheel.

Other parents establish house rules when it comes to driving. Missy Boyd of Buckhead established a "no cell phone use while driving" policy for her son. She said he would call when he arrived, and then call home again when he was leaving. She still felt in touch with him, and now that he’s had more than a year under his belt, he feels confident about his driving.

Heather Mullins of Acworth doesn’t allow her 16-year-old daughter to get in the car with anyone, even friends, without first clearing it with her. She wants to know who is driving, how many others are in the car, and what route they are taking to get to their destination. She also knows which friends have had accidents.

Some parents set limits on where the teen may drive, keeping them on familiar roads within their "comfort zone." Under the graduated license law, teens have limits on passengers, but many parents are continuing this restriction and limiting passengers, or friends, to one. Curfews for many young drivers, which are set by concerned parents, are typically earlier than the state-mandated midnight.

According to the National Safety Council, teenagers who drive at night and with passengers are 4-5 times more likely to crash than teenagers who are driving alone during the day.

Researchers and advocates say teens need more programs aimed at reducing car crashes. An abundance of accident avoidance and car clinics are rising in popularity in the Atlanta area.

"Teens need more practice and supervision before letting them loose," says Harkness, who has developed a new accident-avoidance program, called teenSMART, geared to newly licensed drivers to help them learn to drive more safely, avoid accidents and tackle more complex maneuvers.

Randy Waldman of Acworth didn’t wait until his daughter had an accident to enroll her in a defensive-driving course. Waldman signed up himself and his daughter for Xtreme Measures, an accident-avoidance course taught by trained drivers in the parking lot at the Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton. Using their own vehicles, teens are taught how to control it in a variety of situations, such as excessive speed on wet or curved roads.

"This program is about getting them to know what it feels like to hydroplane or experience extreme braking," says Waldman, who believes driver’s education programs are not enough. "I like that they teach the kids that the car is talking to you, to listen to it and it will tell you what’s wrong."

Dozens of traffic accidents involve teens – with and without injuries – every day. Parents must guide their teens in making better decisions about driving and equip their teens with the knowledge they need to prevent or avoid a car accident.

"No matter what the law says, parents must double, triple or quadruple what they are doing when it comes to driving," Brown says. "We cannot do enough."