On a bright and sunny Saturday morning in mid-May, a black 2010 Nissan Cube pulls up
to a suburban home. Hip hop music is blaring from the inside. The air conditioning is
blasting. Two friends are going out to breakfast to catch up on gossip and share a muchneeded cup of early-morning coffee.
The driver, 17 year-old Amanda Morillo, is heading towards the Country Griddle, a
favorite breakfast hotspot for the people of Flemington, New Jersey. She is heading
towards the highway that leads to a delicious breakfast of French toast and fluffy
pancakes. But on this morning, Amanda spontaneously chooses to take the less populated
back roads instead of the more convenient highway route.
“Did you see that cop on the highway?” she shouts over the booming music and sounds
of the car engine. “I’m so not ready to be tailgated and pulled over at the diner for not
having those stupid stickers on my car”.
Amanda, like the majority of New Jersey teen drivers, should be following Kyleigh’s
Law, put into effect on May 1st, 2010. Named after a sixteen year-old New Jersey girl
who was killed in an accident involving a teen driver, the law requires all drivers under
the age of 21 holding a permit or probationary license to display red magnetic decals on
their front and back license plates. The law has also set new restrictions on the hours in
which teens may be behind the wheel, instead of being allowed to drive from 5 AM to 12
PM, teens may only be out on the road from 6 AM to 11 PM.
The controversy surrounding this law has sparked mass rebellion among New Jersey teen
drivers. According to the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission, less than one in four
teens have purchased the legally necessary decals since the passing of Kyleigh’s Law.
And, like Amanda, instead of taking the normal, more direct routes to their destinations,
many teenagers are choosing alternative routes to take- those less populated by local
police- to avoid being pulled over.
“This whole thing is just ridiculous,” Amanda remarks over a cup of coffee, sitting in a
booth filled with country and farming décor. “I’m a good driver, unlike some of those
teenage idiots who don’t take driving seriously. If I put those stickers on my car, I’m
basically telling people that I’m a bad teenage driver, and they should steer clear of me
on the road”.
The New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission’s website for teen drivers lays down the
guidelines for all New Jersey teens. According to the site, an average of six thousand
teens die in car crashes national each year, and a high percentage of teens involved
in car accidents sustain serious injuries. “The ultimate goal of the GDL program is
to protect the lives of young drivers-and the lives of their passengers and others on
the road,” the website’s FAQ section reads. “The ultimate goal of [the law] is to
protect the lives of young drivers-and the lives of their passengers and others on the
road.”
But not all New Jersey teens and parents see the glass half full. There has been concern
that the stickers will attract unwanted predators. Amanda’s father, Kiko Morillo,
believes that the stickers would do more harm than good. “While my sympathy goes
out to Kyleigh’s mother, I do not want anyone with criminal intentions to know that
my seventeen year-old daughter is in [her] car alone or with friends”, he says. “I
think the red sticker may as well say ‘potential teen victim inside’”.
The boycotting of the law does not remain exclusive to Flemington, or even to New
Jersey. Thanks to popular social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter have
exposed what the law entails for New Jersey teen drivers. Facebook’s popular “group”
feature has over fifty groups which express displeasure for the legislation. Almost fifteen
thousand Facebook users have joined the group called “Kyleigh’s Law lets creepers know
I’m young and alone”. Surprisingly, not all Facebook users who are a part of this group
are from New Jersey; some are from Pennsylvania and other neighboring states, while
others are located as far as California and Nevada. One Twitter user’s latest ‘tweet’ reads
“I got my big girl license. Kyleigh’s Law can suck it :)”.
Teens who do not comply with the red sticker and curfew rules of Kyleigh’s Law
could potentially be fined $100 or be held at risk of having their license revoked.
Mr. Morillo is fully aware of these risks, yet remains unconvinced to comply. “It is
up to me to make sure Amanda does not violate to provisions of her license,” he
says. “I do not need another law to perform my parenting duties.”
Amanda feels that the stickers are just another way for law enforcement to profile and
discriminate against young people. “The color red is not a very attractive color. It’s loud.
It’s obnoxious. It’s outright annoying. And when it’s stuck on the front and back license
plates of your car, it’s even uglier. ”
Driving home from the diner, Amanda pulled into the left lane on the highway to turn
into her development. The light turned red. To her right in the center lane, a Flemington
police officer pulled up in his car. Amanda panicked for a second, fearing she would be
pulled over and fined for failure to display the red stickers. The cop began to look over to
her car, but was quickly distracted by a speeding red Honda on the other side of the
highway. Without warning, the police officer sped to the other side of the highway to
catch the car. The red Honda flaunted matching red stickers on both license plates.
“They flagged down another one,” Amanda remarked as she made the turn into her
neighborhood. “They might have let that car go if there was a thirty five year-old
behind the wheel”.
As for Mr. Morillo, he is hopeful that this law will not be in effect for much longer.
“Too often we seek to blame others for accidents and feel the need to ‘fix’ something
that is not broken,” he says. “As a society, we need to start taking responsibility for
ourselves and for our children.”