Teenagers' driving records available to parents online

SPRINGFIELD -- Looking back, Nancy Buckner said there's no way she would have let her 16-old-son out of the house, let alone behind the wheel, nearly 10 years ago when he was critically injured in a car crash.

But at the time, there was one crucial bit of information the Roselle mother didn't know about her son Michael -- he'd accumulated nearly half a dozen tickets in the five months leading up to the crash.

"We were aware of two of them. We were not aware of all of them," Buckner said. "We received notification of his last ticket the day after his accident."

Now, she hopes parents will take advantage of a newly signed state law intended to make it far easier for parents to peek in on their children's driving record, by letting them do it online.

The Illinois secretary of state will be required to come up with a system to allow parents to check the driving record of children younger than 18. They can check only their child's records, and there will be no charge.

Currently, driving records are public records and a printout can be purchased for $12. But in addition to being free and accessible from home via computer, the latest system will give parents additional information previously not available.

For instance, parents can see if their child has received court supervision and other records previously restricted to law enforcement and the courts.

"That way they have a complete picture of their teen's driving history," said Henry Haupt, a spokesman for the Illinois secretary of state.

Gov. Rod Blagojevich signed the proposal into law earlier this week. It goes into effect Jan. 1. Secretary of State Jesse White applauded the effort.

"By giving adults access to these driving records, we are giving them a tool to keep them more involved in their teenagers' driving patterns as they proceed through the graduated driver licensing program," White said in news release.

This is just one of several laws targeting new drivers. If approved, those laws would require teens to spend more time behind the wheel to qualify for a license and then restrict when they can drive with it and how many other teens can be with them.

This is the state's second shot at trying to make parents aware of their child's driving habits. Under Illinois law, there's nothing requiring that parents be notified when a new driver begins racking up violations.

Prodded by Buckner's situation and others like it, lawmakers created a pilot program in the late 1990s that was supposed to send out notices to the registered owner of the vehicle so, in theory, parents would know when their children get tickets. But the experiment met with resistance because of the amount of work put on the counties and lack of funding from the state.

The latest effort attempts to remedy that by turning to the Internet. The Illinois House and Senate approved it this spring without a vote of opposition.

Buckner believes parents will do an effective job self-policing their new drivers. She said her son recovered from his injuries and that the crash itself was not his fault. Her point is that if she'd have known of his tickets, he'd have been at home, not on the roads.

"Oh, definitely. My main goal was to let parents know, to find a way to get this information," Buckner said. "I would hope that parents would be curious enough to look into it."