Alex Koroknay-Palicz of the National Youth Rights Association also opposes many of the new restrictions, saying teens are scapegoats. Men are more dangerous drivers than women, he said, and senior drivers are statistically more dangerous than middle-aged drivers. So why aren’t there waves of legislation cracking down on unsafe men or retirees?

“Teens don’t really have any political power in society. They can’t vote, they don’t have that much money to donate to campaigns. They’re really overlooked and cut out of the process,” he said. “It’s far easier to blame youth ... than to address the issue holistically.”

Koroknay-Palicz makes an impassioned argument, but he may as well be shouting it at freeway traffic. The trend is clearly going the other way in state after state.

Rationales for the restrictions are well documented. Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for 15- to 20-year-olds, a group representing 6.4 percent of licensed drivers and 13.2 percent of fatal accidents. Inexperienced drivers are more prone to distraction and less likely to wear safety belts. One in four young drivers killed in crashes had been drinking.

Horrific accidents keep making headlines. In Alabama, a car crammed with seven high school cheerleaders careered down a hill in December, killing three of the girls. In upstate New York, five girls died days after graduating high school when the 17-year-old driver swerved into an oncoming truck; text messages were swapped on the driver’s cell moments before the crash. In Connecticut, an 18-year-old driver was reportedly driving his Subaru Impreza at least 100 mph when he lost control on the way home from a pool party last summer, killing himself and his three teen passengers.

In Alabama, Rep. Mac Gipson concedes that his 13-year-old granddaughter is “very opposed” to the curfew bill he proposed. But he argues that young minds have far more distractions now than he had as a new driver back in 1951.

“A lot of people say, ‘Oh well, you didn’t have to do that when you got your license,’” Gipson said. “But when I got my license, there weren’t as many cars on the road.”