Cheap Vehicle Insurance, Maryland’s GDL Laws Closest to Ideal
Meanwhile, Maryland came out as the state that’s closest to the IIHS’s ideal. Maryland has a minimum permit age of 15 years and 9 months, minimum 60 practice hours, a minimum license age of 16.5 years, nighttime driving restrictions from midnight to 5 a.m., and a ban on all passengers under 18 for the first five months of having a license.
Still, if Maryland changed its licensing requirements to match the IIHS ideal, the IIHS estimates it could see for 16- and 17-year-olds a 9 percent reduction in the collision claims rate and a 19 percent reduction in the fatal crash rate.
Extensive GDL Laws Have Good Track Record
One of the biggest, most well-documented GDL success stories is Maryland’s neighbor, Delaware, which has similar restrictions.
In 2010, the University of Delaware ran an analysis of the state’s GDL law, which was implemented in 1999. In the years before implementation, the crash rate for 16-year-old drivers was holding relatively steady. But between 1999 and 2000, the 16-year-old crash rate dropped dramatically, by nearly 38 percent. And by 2008, the youngest drivers’ crash rates had fallen 64 percent from their 1999 levels.
Crash rates for 17- and 18-year-olds, however, held relatively steady, dropping only by about 14 percent between 1999 and 2008.
Another report, published by National Institutes of Health, found that the “proportion of hospitalizations, injuries, crashes involving property damage, and total number of crashes involving registered 16- and 17-year-old drivers after GDL each decreased by at least 30 percent.”