Crackdown looms for speedy teens

When 20-year-old Mark Paparello of Bristol gunned his Honda Prelude over 100 miles per hour on the way home from an October memorial service for a Wolcott teen who died in a car crash, he turned himself into a poster child for youthful recklessness.
And he may have made it a little less likely that speedy young drivers will perish in the future.
“Children just don’t understand that speed can kill,” state Rep. Frank Nicastro, a Bristol Democrat from the 79th District who is pushing for tougher laws for young drivers.
He told a Central Connecticut Chambers of Commerce legislative breakfast Thursday that Paparello racing home that night showed all too obviously that some young people “think they’re indestructible” behind the wheel.
Nicastro is among a group of five lawmakers who recently announced a new proposal aimed at cracking the whip on 16- and 17-year-old drivers who are ticketed for reckless driving, driving under the influence, refusing to take a Breathalyzer, drag racing or violating the restrictions on passengers.
Under their proposal, police officers would be required to seize the young driver’s license and deliver it to the chief of police within 24 hours and to secure safe transportation home for the youths involved.
To get a license returned, teens would have to show they had completed a retraining program and be accompanied by a parent or guardian, if the legislators’ plan wins approval from the General Assembly and Gov. Jodi Rell.
Licenses would be suspended for increasing lengths of time depending on how many previous offenses had been lodged against the driver.
It’s “absolutely appalling” how many teen drivers have managed to rack up multiple tickets, said state Rep. Betty Boukus, a Plainville Democrat whose 22nd District includes a sliver of Forestville.
“We have to get tough with teenagers,” Nicastro said. “It’s not because we want to punish them. It’s because we love them.”
He said that he doesn’t want to see any more youngsters killed in deadly accidents like the ones that happened in Bristol and Wolcott last summer, where seven teens died in two particularly gruesome wrecks.
State Rep. Bill Hamzy, a Plymouth Republican whose 78th District includes northwestern Bristol, said he notices the Route 6 accident site every time he drives by the makeshift memorial near St. Joseph Cemetery marking the spot where four teens perished in August.
“It gets you thinking,” Hamzy said.
“One of the problems is there are plenty of parents who want to be their child’s best friend” and “to provide them with everything they want” except the discipline that will keep their child safe, he said.
Hamzy said he’s not sure what the state can do to help, but he favors any reasonable effort to make a difference that would save lives.
Hamzy pointed out that the driver in the Route 6 crash was 19 years old so a crackdown on younger drivers wouldn’t have had any impact on him anyway.
“I’m not sure what the magic answer is” to get drivers to slow down and show more responsibility on the road, Hamzy said.
State Sen. Tom Colapietro, a Bristol Democrat who has represented the 31st District since 1992, said there’s a simple way to keep young drivers off the streets: parents can simply keep the keys away from them.
“Parents want the law to say what they don’t want to say” directly to their children, Colapietro said.
He said he understands the mentality of young drivers who don’t recognize the danger they may be in because “I used to think I was indestructible.”
Boukus said that families used to have a single car and teens didn’t have the easy access to a vehicle that they do now. She said that many of them find it a necessity to drive.
One problem, she added, is that mass transit options are so scarce that people don’t have options except to drive.
Nicastro said he doesn’t want to raise the driving age to 18, as some have proposed, because at that age both he and Colapietro were in the U.S. Navy. Even now, he said, the country is “losing 17-year-olds” in battle overseas and it doesn’t seem right to deny them the right to drive a car when they can be asked to give their lives for their country.
Nicastro said that parents have to be more involved – and willing to be tough.
But, he said, he recognizes that most young drivers “have their act together and are good and cautious drivers.”
“We can’t punish all for a few,” Nicastro said.

Some current laws for most 16 and 17-year-old drivers
* During the first three months they have a license, only parents, a legal guardian or instructors can be in the car with them.
* During the following three months, the only additional passengers allowed are members of the driver’s immediate family.
* Driving is prohibited between the hours of midnight and 5 a.m. unless the individual is traveling for employment, school, religious activities or for a medical necessity, or if the individual is an assigned driver in a Safe Ride program.
* They cannot use cell phones or handheld electronic devices of any sort.

For more details on teen driving rules and restrictions, see this Connecticut DMV site.

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Copyright 2008. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com