Teen Driving Limits Reviewed

 HARTFORD (AP) — Task force members examining Connecticut’s restrictions on teen motorists say they worry television commercials and movies that glorify risky driving are undermining safety efforts.

The group, convened by Governor M. Jodi Rell to help strengthen Connecticut’s teen driver laws, plans to recommend several measures that include mandatory license suspensions for teens who break motor vehicle laws.

The General Assembly’s transportation committee conducted a public hearing Wednesday to review that recommendation and several others from lawmakers and state officials.

However, several members of the governor’s task force said last Friday they are frustrated by something they have little power to alter: television commercials and movies that seem to glorify excessive speed, reckless driving, and other unsafe behind-the-wheel behaviors.

“We’re confronted with ads,” said US Bankruptcy Court Judge Albert S. Dabrowski, a task force member. “Zoom, zoom, zoom. I find it particularly disturbing and I personally believe that our automobile companies are irresponsible with regard to these ads.”

Task force members say they realize there is little they can do, but discussed whether increasing education efforts to teen drivers might help those young motorists understand the dangers and responsibilities of holding a license.

Jim MacPherson, a spokesman for the AAA Motor Club of Connecticut, agreed ads and movies make a big impact on young teens.

“All sorts of entertainment that goes well beyond advertisements very much comes to bear in what they hope to replicate once they get their licenses,” MacPherson told the group at its meeting.

Excessive speed and reckless behavior, including unsafe passing maneuvers and racing, have been cited in several deadly crashes involving Connecticut teen drivers in recent years.