What Will Red Stickers Actually Accomplish?

>>>The red badge of inexperience is part of Kyleigh's Law, which was passed nearly unanimously by the state legislature and signed by then-Gov. Jon Corzine last year. The law is named for a Morris County teenager killed three years ago when the car she was riding in crashed. A new driver was at the wheel.

And exactly how does a red sticker on one's license plate (on a car probably driven by the whole family, not just the kid) stop some over-confident, testosterone fueled teenage boy from drinking, driving drunk and killing himself, or herself, and anyone else in the car?

Such a badge does nothing!

Here's the article:

Red Decal Has N.J. Teens Seeing Red

A New Jersey law requiring young drivers to stick a red decal on their license plates expectedly upset teenagers.

But the ire has crossed generations. Parents, too, are protesting the overhaul of the state's rules for young drivers.

Debbie Minnick, a mother in Hamilton Township, recently took her 16-year-old to the Motor Vehicle Commission for a learner's permit. The clerk told her she needed to buy red decals for her daughter.

Ms. Minnick's response: "When hell freezes over, I'll buy those stickers," she said.

One month after the new law went into effect, many New Jersey parents are refusing to abide. As of May 1, small red decals must adorn the license plates of cars driven by new drivers under 21.

New Jersey's Motor Vehicle Commission says 250,000 drivers are subject to the law. As of last week, it had sold just over 105,000 sets of the decals.

The red badge of inexperience is part of Kyleigh's Law, which was passed nearly unanimously by the state legislature and signed by then-Gov. Jon Corzine last year. The law is named for a Morris County teenager killed three years ago when the car she was riding in crashed. A new driver was at the wheel.

Gregory Gottlieb, a junior at Atlantic City High School, isn't putting the decals on his car. His parents are supporting his decision, he said.

"It's scary, especially for parents who disagree with it," Mr. Gottlieb said. He co-founded a Facebook group opposing that law that now has more than 30,000 members.

"If any group of drivers should be identifiable, it should be convicted sex offenders, not their prey," Mr. Gottlieb wrote last year in an op-ed in his local paper, the Press of Atlantic City.

Most of the law's provisions—restrictions on teenage driving at night, how many people can be in the car, a ban on hands-free cellphones—aren't as controversial.

The decal—the first of its kind in the nation—is meant to give police a way to enforce restrictions on young drivers.

Backers argue that if police can't tell who is or isn't subject to special rules like limits on the number of passengers in the car, they can't enforce those limits. Teens caught without the decals face a $100 fine.

Ms. Minnick said she's willing to pay the $100 fine if her daughter, Amber, is caught. Amber said many students at Hamilton West High School, where she's a sophomore, ignored the messages from police officers when the law went into effect reminding them to get decals.

"Why don't we just put a bull's-eye on our car?" the younger Ms. Minnick said. "I'm not putting that on my car. I don't feel safe."

That response has prompted some state lawmakers to introduce legislation to repeal the decal requirement. Some just want to get rid of the decals. Another seeks to require young drivers to register the cars they'll be driving with the Motor Vehicle Commission, so police can check the license-plate number of someone they suspect to be violating restrictions on young drivers before they pull that person over.

Backers of the decal rule say they're surprised by the angry responses.

"I'm confused because our teenagers today are the most visible group of teens ever," said Pamela Fischer, the director of the New Jersey Division of Highway Traffic Safety and chairwoman of the study group that proposed the decals. She pointed to teenagers using social networking services like Twitter and Facebook to broadcast their activities.

"Any nasty person could sit in any mall or any parking lot and see teenagers," she said.

Joseph Irace, the president of the Oceanport Borough Council, said he and his wife argued about whether their 16-year-old daughter—who still has her learner's permit and can't drive without an adult in the car—should display the red decals. Eventually, they decided she should.

"Our concern is you can't pick and choose which laws you follow," Mr. Irace said.

But once Mr. Irace's daughter starts driving alone, the family plans to reconsider their decision.

Like most modern activists, New Jersey teens have taken to Facebook to organize their opposition. There are groups in which thousands of teenagers pledge not to follow the law. There are groups of parents against the decals. And there's a page with 1,200 supporters that proposes a new game: stealing the decals from license plates. Mr. Gottlieb said that's not something he supports, but said he has seen his friends do it.