- We're pleased to be joined by Cathy Chase, who's president of Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety.

Cathy, great to have you with us.

- Thanks, Steve.

Good to be here.

- Website is up right now.

Tell everyone what the organization is.

- Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety is a nonprofit lobbying group.

We work in Congress and throughout the country to improve traffic safety laws.

- All right.

Let's speak about traffic safety laws.

There's a new New Jersey law that has to do with supervised driving practice.

What exactly is it and why is it so significant?

- There's a new law that's going to take effect in February of next year that requires young drivers to practice for 50 hours, 10 of which have to be at night.

And it's crucially important because teenagers are one of the most dangerous driving populations, and there are steps that can be taken to make the roads safer for them and everyone sharing the roads with them.

- There's a history behind this law, and it's a tragic history.

Talk to us about the 11-year-old boy who was killed by a driver who ran a stop sign.

Is it Nikhil?

- Yes, so there are numerous tragedies, Steve, that being one of the most poignant ones because it was an 11-year-old boy, as you mentioned, but every year people are being killed on New Jersey's roads because of young, inexperienced drivers.

And the problem is that young drivers think that they know how to drive, and they also feel invincible, but yet they're lacking the skills.

And that's why we need to teach them how to drive, just like you wouldn't put a baseball player on the mounds without teaching 'em how to pitch first or you don't start Spanish with an advanced class, you start with a beginning class.

It's a similar concept, you know, with a car.

You gotta learn, you gotta take the steps to learn.

- And just to be clear, there's a foundation that was formed at West Orange High School that lobbied for this initiative, and I'm sure others did as well.

- Yes, others did, yeah.

- Lemme also talk about this.

There's a, this is an interesting issue because with our young daughter who's turning 14, as we're doing this program, we'll often have conversations about the rear seatbelt.

There's an issue around the rear seatbelt, the current laws, and what is the effort to change that law as it relates to rear seat belts, please, Cathy?

- So right now in New Jersey, the rear seatbelt law is secondary enforcement, meaning law enforcement has to observe another violation before they can pull someone over to get a ticket for not wearing your seatbelt.

We are, we together with numerous groups, including the Click Clack Front and Back group from Indian Hills High School, we've been pushing to try to get a primary enforcement rear seat belt law so that it sends the message that everyone, every passenger, every ride, should be buckled up.

In a crash it's your first line of defense.

- Now this bill has been in quote unquote committee for a few years now.

- Yes.

- Why is that?

- We're trying to build more support and more sponsors.

It just, these, you would think that these bills are common sense and protect everyone, but sometimes politics does get involved, and it can just be difficult.

The graduated driver licensing law that we were previously discussing took more than 15 years to bring across the finish line.

I know.

It's difficult, and we just, we need political leadership.

- Well, let me ask you, what would the quote unquote politics be, Cathy, around auto safety?

- You would think there shouldn't be any because everyone's on the roads, whether you're in a car or walking or bicycling, you know, it affects really everyone.

But sometimes if there are, you know, sponsors of one political party, the other party doesn't want to give a bipartisan effort.

It just can get bogged down unfortunately.

We're trying to push through that, and I think that the involvement of students really does help because it shows an engagement by young people.

And if the young people recognize that this needs to be done, certainly the adults should do so.

- Let me ask you this, your organization is a national organization, right?

- Yes.

- So we're talking about legislation in New Jersey.

Where do federal laws finish and state laws pick up and vice versa?

- Great question.

Well, Congress has what they call the power of the purse.

So they can incentivize states to pass laws or they can withhold money if states don't pass laws.

Also, federal regulations cover the vehicles themselves.

So if a car has automatic emergency braking or other, you know, systems within the car, that's under federal regulation as well.

- So let me ask you this, what is the message for all the parents out there?

Some of us have a couple of kids driving right now.

Right now as we speak, 20 and 21.

And our daughter, as I said, 14, and my older son has been driving for a while.

The fear, the panic, the anxiety that we all experience.

What advice do you have for us, them, all of us?

- Yeah, I'm right there with you.

I've got two young drivers myself, so I get it.

Practice with your children.

The more practice you give them, the better.

Make sure they know that it is not negotiable, that they always need to wear a seatbelt, and everyone in that vehicle needs to wear a seatbelt with them.

Put away the distractions.

That's, you know, young people are exactly, we're all addicted to our cell phones, and everyone thinks they can multitask, but we can't.

And you need to really focus on the driving task and that's it.

You need to get to your destination safely, and that's the way you accomplish it.

- Cathy Chase, President of Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety.

Cathy, thank you very much for joining us.

We appreciate it.

- Thanks, Steve.

- I'm Steve Adubato, that's Cathy Chase.

We thank you so much for watching.

We'll see you next time.

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