Illinois Auto Insurance – Teen Driving in the Land of Lincoln
One of the most exciting things about being a teenager is knowing adulthood is just around the corner – and what better first step to take on the path to legitimacy than obtaining a driver’s license?
Teen driving statistics are pretty grim. Drivers between the ages of 16 and 20 get into more than 400,000 crashes per year in the United States, and over 5,000 of those crashes are fatal. Different states have different ways of dealing with this problem, and Illinois’ solution is particularly unique. Legislation has been passed and the Graduated Driver Licensing program (hereafter referred to as “GDL”) has been instituted with the hopes of solving and potentially eliminating the problem entirely, and the state has gotten excellent results. Since the GDL came into effect in January 2008, teen driving fatality rates have dropped by 40%. Those odds favor younger drivers much better, even though the licensing process is now much more complicated.
The licensing process is now composed of three different phases: the permit phase at age 15, the initial licensing phase at age 16-17, and the full licensing phase at age 18-20. As is the case with most licensing programs for teens, a legal parent or guardian must consent to a young drivers’ desire to hold a permit and, subsequently, a license. Those young drivers must also enroll in an approved driver education course and meet a number of requirements, which depend on the phase of licensing the teen is in and are explained in the next section.
How do teen drivers affect their legal parents’ or guardians’ auto insurance?
Even though the GDL program has been significantly helpful to teen drivers and their parents, it has not erased the problems of inexperience on the road that all teen drivers tend to have at one time or another. Accidents continue to happen, and some of those accidents still involve teens. This fact is perhaps unavoidable. Teenagers must carry the same minimum liability auto insurance as adults do in the state of Illinois – $20,000 for the injury or death of one person in an accident, $40,000 for the injury or death of more than one person in an accident, and $15,000 for property damage. However, auto insurance companies recommend increasing the coverage for a teen’s first year of driving, as their risk of collision is much higher during this period.
Teens, unfortunately, will increase their parents’ auto insurance rates significantly. However, both they and their parents can do certain things from keeping this increase from turning into an exorbitant amount. For example, students can qualify for discounts of up to 15% if they keep a B average in school or successfully complete a state- approved safe driver course. Legal parents and guardians can also keep these increases down if they refrain from buying their teens sports or luxury cars or if they choose a higher deductible.
Though raising a teen driver in Illinois is slightly more involved than it once was, the benefits of the GDL program far outweigh the disadvantages. Accidents may still happen, but they happen less often than they once did, which makes the road safer for drivers of all ages in the Land of Lincoln.
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