Non-compliance with graduated driver licensing (GDL) requirements: changes in GDL-related conviction rates over time among 16-17-year-old California drivers.

Introduction: Self-reports by novice teen drivers in California and elsewhere suggest that many violate graduated driver licensing (GDL) nighttime and passenger restrictions, and to a lesser extent, drive on learner permits without being supervised. Is this corroborated by their traffic conviction records?

Method: We examined historical aggregated conviction rates for GDL-related violations before and after GDL, and Poisson regressions of conviction rates over time among 16-17-year-old California novices.

Results: During the year before they received their provisional licenses, <1% of 16-year-old novices and <2% of 17-year-old novices were convicted of driving unlicensed or unsupervised on their learner permits.

DUI Countermeasures: differences between court jail sentences and jail time actually served and available alternative sanctions in select California counties.

Introduction And Methods: Jail sentences and actual jail times were compared for 2006 California driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs (DUI) offenders from select counties using matched data from Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV), court, and sheriff databases. Additionally, alternative sanctions to jail were investigated.

Results: Jail sentences reported by courts were consistently longer than actual jail time.