'Teen driver' vehicle decal coming in New Jersey

[4N2NR]

A first-in-the-nation law in New Jersey will require new drivers ages 21 and younger to display identifying decals on their vehicles. The decals will probably be a small reflective rectangle attached to the front and rear license plates to help police enforce restrictions on probationary drivers, motor vehicle officials said.

Police will use them to determine whether teens are violating the state driving curfew and passenger restrictions, said Pam Fischer, director of the New Jersey Division of Highway Safety.

Officials are considering using Velcro to attach the decals, so they can be removed by other drivers using the same car.
New Jersey is the first state to require the decal, although Delaware and Connecticut have toyed with the idea, said David Weinstein, spokesman for AAA Mid-Atlantic.

The Delaware Department of Transportation is considering offering residents a reflective orange magnet that says, in black, capital letters: "NOVICE DRIVER." The magnets would be voluntary, said Dawn Hopkins, department spokeswoman.

According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, 61 percent of teenage passenger deaths in 2007 occurred in vehicles driven by another teenager. Twenty percent of all passenger deaths occurred when a teenager was driving.

New Jersey's decal law was spurred by the driving death of a 16-year-old honor student in Morris County, Kyleigh D'Alessio, who was killed in 2006 riding in a car driven by a teenager with a probationary license.

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