In a report this month, the state’s Child Fatality Review Team called attention to seven teen driver deaths in crashes between 11 p.m. and 4:59 a.m. over a 15-year period. Experts on child deaths in Vermont say the Legislature should prohibit teens from driving in the late night and early morning hours. Vermont is the only state in the nation without a nighttime restriction on junior driver’s licenses.

“This is oftentimes someone’s first experience with a peer death,” said Dr. Bell, who is co-chair of the team and a critical care physician at the University of Vermont Medical Center. “It really affects them for the rest of their lives.”

Her team recommends an amendment that would prohibit teens from driving between midnight and 5 a.m. with a junior license, which is typically held by 16- and 17-year-olds. The report is meant to be a conversation-starter, Bell said, with room for fine-tuning the details of a potential rule change.

“The teen years can be very fraught for families and for young people. It’s a period of time where we want young people to have more independence,” Bell said. “But it’s also a time when research shows that their decision-making capacity is not fully at where it’s going to be when they’re adults.”

Car crashes are the leading cause of death among Vermont adolescents, and nearly a quarter of those fatal accidents have occurred at night.

Read full story at New England Public Media

This topic was also covered by Vermont Public and WCAI (Cape, Coast, and Islands NPR).