Crash that killed teens in Chester County may affect safety bill stalled in Pennsylvania Senate

A Chester County mother extolled her blessings on Facebook early this month, concluding: "Life is what it should be."

Less than two weeks later, Linda Duguay Wood was posting obituary information for her 16-year-old son, one of two fatalities in an accident involving multiple passengers and an inexperienced driver.

The crash has generated questions - but no answers - about whether more tragedies will jump-start House Bill 67, a teen-safety initiative stalled in the state Senate.

"Pennsylvania is a very difficult state for highway safety," said Jonathan Adkins, a spokesman for the national Governors Highway Safety Association.

He said the state "has fallen behind other states" in lifesaving areas such as banning cell phones, making failure to use seat belts a primary offense, and imposing restrictions on teen drivers.

Police said Montgomery "Monte" A. Wood, an aspiring Eagle Scout, had sneaked out with some Twin Valley High School classmates about 3 a.m. July 16 in a high-powered Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution.

A joyride up and down Beaver Dam Road in Honey Brook Township followed what police termed a "campout" at Wood's nearby home and ended with the deaths of Wood and his front-seat passenger, Britany Pearl Leger, 15, of Honey Brook Borough.

Two other passengers, Damien Paterno and Cameron Merlino, both 15, are recovering from injuries. Police said none of the teens had a driver's permit or license.

Flaura Winston, a pediatrician who founded and directs the Center for Injury Research and Prevention at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, said the crash - like many others - highlighted the need to impose passenger limits on teen drivers.

"There's a different brain pathway that starts working when teens are together," she said. "You mix an Eagle Scout with a bunch of friends and something else emerges."

Winston said that even though it was unlikely a law would have prevented the Honey Brook tragedy, she was frustrated by the state's "epidemic of teen crashes."

Since 2005, more than 500 teen drivers and 300 of their passengers have died in Pennsylvania, Winston said, adding that teen drivers had killed 300 other people as well.

"If there was some other epidemic killing kids this fast, we would demand that the killer be stopped, yet we tolerate this," she said.

As passed by the House in April 2009, H.B. 67 would have limited teenage drivers to one nonfamily passenger younger than 18 and added 15 hours of required driver training.

It would have made the use of cell phones and the failure to buckle up primary offenses, meaning police could stop drivers for such violations. Currently, unbelted drivers can be cited only if they are pulled over for another reason.

The Senate voted to ax the extra training, make cell-phone use a secondary offense, and add a provision that after six months of driving, teenagers who had not caused an accident could drive up to three nonfamily passengers younger than 18.

The revamped bill set up a contentious debate in the House this month, ending with a 126-71 vote to return the bill to the Senate.

Some supporters of the bill, including its sponsor, Rep. Joseph F. Markosek (D., Allegheny), majority chairman of the House Transportation Committee, urged colleagues to reject the Senate version.

Other supporters, including Rep. Katharine M. Watson (R., Bucks), warned that senators were predicting the bill's demise if it were returned. She said she advocated the Senate's version only because one key provision remained intact: making the failure to buckle up a primary offense for anyone younger than 18.

In the Honey Brook accident, only Leger used a seat belt.

Asked whether she thought the accident would have any effect, Watson said, "Honestly, I don't know."

Markosek said that after being "ignored" for several weeks, his staff had been talking to Senate staffers.

"I expect a conclusion (one way or the other) in September," he wrote in an e-mail.

When the Senate returns Sept. 20, it can vote to "insist" on the amendments, which would begin the process of forming a conference committee of House and Senate members, or "recede" from the amendments and send a different version back to the House.

Sen. Mike Folmer (R., Lebanon) said he did not know whether his colleagues would change their minds.

"This is an emotional issue," he said, adding that responsibility can't be legislated. "We need to tweak the existing laws on reckless driving and let young people know there are consequences for their actions. . . . We aren't going to end all the deaths until young people act responsibly."

Winston said it was everyone's responsibility to protect children.

"They need to get a mediator and reconcile their differences," she said of lawmakers. "It just needs to happen. Our teens are dying."