"It doesn't surprise me," Carol McNamee, chairwoman of public policy and founder of Mothers Against Drunk Driving-Hawai'i, said of the state's No. 17 ranking for youth-related driving fatalities. The NSC ranking is based on 32 traffic fatalities in 2003 involving a driver 16 to 20 years old. Officials said 42,287 drivers in the state that year were in that age group.

McNamee said she believes one reason for the relatively high number is Hawai'i was not among 39 or 40 states with a graduated-licensing program, which restricts the number of passengers, as well as the hours of operation, for drivers with provisional licenses, which are issued to people ages 16 to 17.

"If it is well written, graduated licensing reduces the number of fatalities and serious crashes that happen at night," McNamee said. "Also in 2003, we saw a spike in alcohol-related crashes in Hawai'i."

McNamee noted that the alcohol-related numbers were high in the 15-24 age group.

According to state Department of Transportation statistics, alcohol was a factor in the traffic deaths of 16 of 21 drivers ages 16 to 20 in 2003. In 2004, nine of 21 traffic deaths in the same age group were alcohol-related.

The 16-year-olds are overrepresented in the number of crashes here, McNamee said.

Honolulu police administrative traffic Sgt. Robert Lung said the state's graduated-licensing law will prohibit a driver who is 16 or 17 from operating a vehicle at night without a parent or guardian present for 180 days after obtaining a provisional license.

"The intent is to give them experience and more control during night hours," Lung said. "They tend to have more crashes when peers are with them because they'll take more risks. They cannot have more than one unrelated person with them in the car."

The new law does not apply to people getting a driver's license at age 18 or older.

Under the current system, a person can obtain a learning permit at age 15› and a provisional license at age 16 but they must present a Driver Education Student Completion Certificate and a Behind-the-Wheel Student Completion Certificate to the Examiner of Drivers before scheduling a road test.

"Driver's education may or may not reduce the number of accidents but we do know that graduated licensing clearly helps reduce fatalities and accidents," McNamee said. "We expect to see a rise in a good way in our ranking in the second or third year of graduated licensing."

The state's health and transportation departments will monitor the law's effects for five years.