Back in 1957, Hollywood released two exploitation films with the copycat titles of I Was a Teenage Frankenstein and I Was a Teenage Werewolf. The intention of the producers was to scare the wits out of youngsters at movie theaters and drive-ins. If they had chosen to plumb the hidden fears of parents, they probably would have come up with a movie more along the lines of I Was a Teenage Driver.

The 1955 film Rebel Without a Cause, this one a classic, probably did arouse such fears with its "chickie"edge-of-the-cliff car race scene with pumped-up teens. Ironically, its star, James Dean, died that same year in a car crash at the young age of 24.

Since the invention of the automobile, the teenager's rite of passage from passenger to driver has kept mom and dad on the edge of their seats. Not without reason: Place an adolescent with raging hormones, feelings of immortality and a touch of bravado behind the wheel of a car, and the worst-case scenario practically writes itself.

U.S. statistics offer grim evidence: Car crashes are the nation's No. 1 killer of teens between the ages of 16 and 19, accounting for 5,000 deaths each year. And a teen is at the wheel in 20 percent of all highway deaths-that's 8,984 people last year alone, reports the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

In New York State, 16-20-year-olds make up only 5 percent of licensed drivers but are involved in more than 12 percent of the fatal crashes.

It therefore should come as no surprise that even among the legions of parents who work hard to instill a sense of responsibility in their teenage children, there is concern every time a child walks out the door with car keys in hand. A recent survey sponsored by the Chrysler automotive division found that parents of 15- to 18-year-olds worry more about their teens' driving safety than about their possible abuse of drugs or alcohol.

The worriers include people like Jay Valentin of Staten Island, whose son Jayson, 17, received his junior license in April: "It's a scary proposition, giving a 16- or 17-year-old a 4,000-pound vehicle to operate. At the end of the day, we just want him home."

And Pat O'Malley of Medford, L.I., whose daughter Sharon, turned 16 in September and hopes to enroll this fall in driver's education at her high school: "I'll be a little nervous for her safety. A beginner is more at risk than a seasoned driver. "

And Tzvi Bar-Shai of Yonkers, whose youngest son, Elahd, obtained his license on his 17th birthday in July: "Inside, I'm anxious,even as I know, intellectually, that I had to let him do it. Driving is a process-you have to start somewhere."

A Process Called GDL

A process is also the core idea behind new regulations establishing more restrictive and measured steps that 16- and 17-year-olds must take to advance from the learner's-permit stage to junior and full driving privileges. It's called graduated driver licensing, or GDL, and it went into effect in New York State on Sept. 1.

AAA has been championing GDL nationwide since 1997, and it's been adopted, in one form or another, by all but two states.

In New York, it took years of hard-fought campaigning by AAA clubs before Albany lawmakers voted for GDL, which sets new standards for teens during the probation stage, from the minimum period they must hold on to their learner's permit before applying for an unrestricted license to the maximum number of peers who can come along for the ride. (See "New Rules for New Drivers" on page 15.)

But perhaps the most precedent-setting change under GDL is that, for the first time, it also places some burden of responsibility on the parent or guardian, who must now submit written certification that their son or daughter has completed at least 20 hours of driver training under their own supervision, as part of a driver's education course or as a student of a bona fide driving school.

Studies have shown that the implementation of GDL in states with little or no restrictions on teen drivers has sharply reduced crash rates. New York had some elements of graduated licensing in place; the new GDL rules will close some important loopholes.

All safety advocates, including AAA, agree that GDL is an important but only partial solution to safeguarding the lives of our youngest drivers. They argue that parents also must step forward-as teacher, disciplinarian and role model.

Parent-Teen Bonding

Marta Genovese, chair of the State AAA's Legislative Committee, says she is confident that GDL will soon prove its worth as an effective tool in combatting dangerous driving by requiring teenagers to acquire more behind-the-wheel experience in lower-risk situations. But she quickly adds: "Parents, too,can play an important role in their child's safety by conditioning use of the family car on complying with certain safety rules. It might take the form of prohibiting any teenage passengers without an adult present, or banning distractions such as cell phones or in-car eating and drinking-at least until the youth demonstrates a certain level of driving skills."

Beyond being a disciplinarian, says Genovese, "Parents can also help kids become better drivers by providing them with as much supervised practice as possible, day and night."

Developing a close-knit relationship is the aim of a new Parent-Teen Workshops program launched by the Club this fall. In addition to familiarizing participants with the new GDL requirements, the 90-minute workshops will highlight teen risk factors (peer pressure, impulsiveness, sense of invulnerability, a simple lack of experience), and stress the importance of parents setting a good example. The overall goal, says Mark Kulewicz, Club director of Traffic Engineering and Safety Services, is to motivate parents "to work out a specific plan of action in the training and development of the teenager as he moves through the licensing process."

The sessions, which he characterizes as "interactive, not a lecture," will also encourage the parent-teen pairs to sign on to a personalized "contract" spelling out government-mandated obligations (wearing seat belts at all times, for example) as well as optional "house rules," such as geographic travel limitations or evening curfews.

The workshops will be made available to a wide range of interested groups, including school PTAs, libraries, Boy and Girl Scout troops, and church and synagogue organizations, who will arrange for the participation of eight to 15 parent-teen pairs. To defray instruction costs, the Club will charge sponsoring organizations $100 for each workshop, which will be led by a member of the Club's Traffic Safety staff or an instructor in the Club's state-approved Driver Improvement Program. For more information, call 516/873-2378.

Elahd Bar-Shai may have obtained his license two months before falling under the new GDL restrictions. But his father, Tzvi, an executive with the nonprofit organization Citizens Committee for New York City, says he's been acting all along on the assumption that learning to drive is a serious business he can't leave entirely to strangers. For one thing, he made his son wait one year beyond the minimum age of consent.

Son: "A lot of driving is innate, anyone can make a car go forward or brake."

Father: "Elahd has always been studious and careful, but we're all more responsible at age 17 than at age 16."

Even after passing the road test-on the first try-and obtaining a full license, Elahd has had to accept restrictions such as no driving at night or into Manhattan. "I want him to develop his skills as an independent driver without the burden of doing it at night and on unfamiliar roads," the father says.

Ever-monitoring his son's driving, Bar-Shai offers this candid assessment: "He's a pretty good driver now, careful, if still a little hesitant. He has to learn to be more assertive without being aggressive so he can make quick decisions to avoid accidents."

Extreme Training

It's this kind of concern that brought Jay Valentin and his son Jayson to the Nassau Coliseum in Hempstead, L.I., recently to participate in a demonstration of Driver's Edge. The program for teenagers was established by a Las Vegas-based outfit to approximate, as close as safety would allow, the kinds of life-threatening situations that require evasive lane-changing, emergency stopping and skid-control maneuvers. To this end, they recreated a controlled environment of curvy, wet and obstacle-ridden roadways.

"While driver's ed courses teach you the basics-how to park, how to turn on a corner," notes Valentin, a police lieutenant in the office of NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly, "I also want my son to be able to face possibly severe situations, to have a better understanding of how a vehicle reacts in emergency situations and what he should do about. It."

Driver's Edge has not established any ongoing program in this area, but many New Yorkers are demonstrating how far they will go and how much they will spend in order to give their children an "edge" in avoiding accidents. They're heading north to the Litchfield Hills section of Connecticut and a track in Lime Rock, where the Dodge/Skip Barber Driving School offers a year-round accident-avoidance program of its own that could be described as a cross between "boot camp" and a weekend getaway. The school, founded by a retired race car driver, charges up to $795 and $1,295, respectively, for intensive one- and two-day sessions. Following a concept similar to Driver's Edge, the school has its students, including many teenagers, learn to handle a wide range of emergency situations requiring quick braking, turning and lane-changing as well as appreciate the "performance limits of a car," according to Andrew Torres, marketing manager at the school. An opportunity to try one's hand on a mini-race course is thrown in for fun.

With a 15-year-old daughter poised to take a driver's ed course and begin her driving career, Pat O'Malley, assistant director of Information Services for the Club, is more mindful than ever these days of the large memorial in his Long Island neighborhood; it's dedicated to the teen victims of a tragic auto accident that occurred a few summers ago just a few blocks from his home.

"My wife and I are fairly confident of our daughter Sharon's abilities and she's reasonably cautious," he says. And while adding their own lessons to that at driver's ed, they'll continue to point out to her the poor examples of drivers-those not wearing seat belts, changing lanes without signaling or following a car too closely.

"What we worry most about is that other guy on the road," says O'Malley.

Expanding Research

While parents look after their own, researchers continue to seek ways to overcome the excesses and shortcomings of youth.

The National Institute of Child Health and Development in Bethesda, Md., under the leadership of Dr. Bruce Simons-Morton, chief of the Prevention Branch, is conducting research on the willingness of parents to adopt the elements of GDL and restrict early teen driving to less dangerous driving conditions.

"The first year after receiving a license is a very dangerous time" for teen drivers regardless of the amount of prior practice they have had, says Dr. Simons-Morton. "So the idea is to encourage driving, but under less risky conditions." Among the dangerous factors he cited are the presence of two or more additional passengers, nighttime and bad-weather driving and complicated road conditions, including high-speed, heavily used roads.

"So let your kids drive," he says, "but have them back at 6 o'clock or tell them to stay where they are if it rains."

Meanwhile, with the idea that a good concept, like a good driver, always has room for improvement, the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety has announced a two-year project to compare and analyze different GDL programs. Its purpose is to identify those components that work best-in enhancing both the training and to encourage mom and dad to become Parents with a Cause in their child's driver education.