By Jennifer Fernandez
During Isabella Avila’s freshman year at Union Pines High School in rural Moore County, a member of the senior class died in a car accident.
Then, during her sophomore year, a freshman was killed when the vehicle he was driving crashed into a house, she said. Media reports at the time indicate the SUV’s driver and his passenger, who survived, were both 14.
“He was actually in my class,” Avila, a 17-year-old junior, recalled of the boy who died. “I remember he talked to me one time.”
In North Carolina, the number of fatal wrecks involving teen drivers ages 15 to 19 increased by 41 percent from 2013 to 2023, according to data analyzed by the UNC Highway Safety Research Center. They rose from 111 to 157 a year.
“Unfortunately, when it comes to my school … we have … one or two kids pass away every year due to driving,” Avila said.
When Avila learned about the NC Alliance for Safe Transportation Teen Safe Driving Ambassador program, she thought it would be a good fit for her. The program, in its second year, has about 100 students from across the state serving as ambassadors.
Their goal: to encourage safe driving behaviors among their peers.
Graduated driver’s licensing
Young drivers are at high risk of crashes due to contributing factors such as inexperience, distractions and unfamiliarity with today’s ever-evolving and complex vehicle technology, according to Justin Owens, a senior research scientist with the UNC Highway Research Safety Center.
“Countermeasures that are out there can include graduated driver’s licensing, which is so critically important,” Owens said in an April 2025 webinar hosted by the NC Governor’s Highway Safety Program in partnership with the Institute for Transportation Research and Education.
North Carolina’s graduated driver’s license program dates to the late 1990s, when the state became one of the first to require young drivers go through several levels of training before getting a full license.
Other ways to stem young driver deaths can include using multipronged approaches to address distraction and impairment, and teaching new drivers about automation and advanced vehicle systems, Owens said in the webinar.
He also said improving messaging to parents is important so that “they can make use of this training period, this practice period, to help their teens learn how to drive as safely as possible.”
Once North Carolina moved to the multi-level licensing in 1998, the rate of crashes involving only 16-year-old drivers declined by 38 percent, according to data collected by the UNC Highway Safety Research Center. Fatal and serious injury crashes declined by 46 percent.
More recently, though, new data released last year showed the lower crash rates only held steady until 2021. Researchers with the Highway Safety Research Center at UNC Chapel Hill told NC Health News that those rates then started to tick up after the pandemic. That corresponds to when state lawmakers reduced the required practice period from 12 months to six months.
With the exception of a short period, the six-month requirement was in place until December 2023.
It was during that time — from July 2021 through December 2023 — that the crash rate for 16-year-old drivers ticked up by 13 percent, according to that early data analyzed by the UNC Highway Safety Research Center. Data hasn’t been released for 2024, when the nine-month learner’s permit period took effect.
Khalia Cain, an 18-year-old senior at Greensboro College Middle College, also recently became a teen safe driving ambassador. One of the things she learned is how those crashes decreased under the state’s graduated driver’s licensing system.
“It just makes me realize how important it is to have this program and to have these talks about safe driving,” Cain said.
Permit periods vary by state
The majority of U.S. states, and the District of Columbia, require that novice drivers hold a learner’s permit for at least six months before gaining more independence, according to data compiled by the independent Insurance Institute for Highway Safety-Highway Loss Data Institute.
Nine states require a 12-month practice period, which has long been considered the gold standard in graduated driver’s licensing. Thirty-six states require at least six months of practice.
Data show that the rate of fatal crashes for 16- and 17-year-old drivers dropped 30 percent in North Carolina after it instituted the 12-month learner’s permit period. States with a six-month period saw an average decrease of 12 percent.
North Carolina required a 12-month practice period under the supervision of a fully licensed adult driver — until the COVID-19 pandemic. That’s when North Carolina state lawmakers temporarily shortened the time required for teens to drive with supervision from 12 months to six.
Then, in 2023, amid constituent complaints about backlogs at the state Division of Motor Vehicles that delayed teens their final licenses, lawmakers decided not to restore the 12-month training period, opting for nine months instead starting in January 2024.
In 2025, North Carolina lawmakers again considered reducing the time young drivers must have a learner’s permit before moving on to unsupervised driving.
But child safety advocates again pushed back against any changes, arguing that a longer practice period gives novice drivers more time to face varied experiences — driving in spring rains or winter snow, through bright summer sun or gusty fall days.
The bill did not pass.
For the moment, North Carolina’s requirement stands at nine months.
“From a research perspective, the data do not support it being as safe to have a nine- month period as a 12-month period,” Owens told NC Health News.
When lawmakers made that reduction, researchers and driver’s education officials said they were worried it would likely lead to an increase in vehicle crashes involving young drivers.
No one has researched the effects of shifting from a 12-month learning period to a nine-month period, researchers with the UNC Highway Safety Research Center previously told NC Health News.
North Carolina is now one of only four states to have a nine-month learning period. The states with the shortest periods are Wyoming, which requires a learner’s permit be held for only 10 days before moving to the next stage of its graduated license, and New Hampshire, which has no time limit at all.
Sharing teen driver safety information
The North Carolina Child Fatality Task Force has included education about the state’s graduated driver’s license as part of its 2026 agenda. The legislative study group wants to emphasize the importance of the science behind graduated licensing and plans to continue to receive updates on the latest science on the issue.
Members of the NC Alliance for Safe Transportation Teen Safe Driving Ambassador program are also looking to share information this year.
Cain, the teen driving ambassador from Guilford County, is planning to use social media to promote safe driving practices and spread awareness to her peers about how they can be better drivers.
She said she’s concerned that North Carolina legislators changed the law in 2023 to allow young drivers to ferry up to two passengers under 21.
“Some people like to drive with, like, too many people, too many passengers in the vehicle,” she said. “And I think limiting that, especially even more for newer drivers, can be helpful.”
When no teen passengers are allowed, fatal crash rates for 15- to 17-year-old drivers are 21 percent lower than when two or more passengers are allowed, according to data collected by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety-Highway Loss Data Institute. Allowing only one teen passenger reduces the rate 7 percent, the group found.
‘Worth the extra time’
Avila knows how hard it is to wait to move on to the next stage of the graduated driver’s license. She’s still working on getting her minimum 60 hours of practice logged, which is part of the learner’s permit portion of the licensing.
Her father has been her licensed supervisor, but he’s in the Army and has been deployed for the past year. She said her mom is busy working, so she is waiting for her dad to return before resuming her driving practice.
Getting a license is especially important in rural communities like Moore County, Avila said.
“Everything is so far away,” she said. “You cannot walk to anything.”
Considering the number of young driver deaths in her area, Avila said she understands the importance of that practice time.
“It’s worth the extra time for saving a potential life,” she said.
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