Crash Test Dummies  A state law that was supposed to save teens
from themselves backfires  Safer kids and highways must not be
the goal of California's absurd new law to shackle teenage
drivers. Even though Highway Patrol stats clearly show the law
preceded a record jump in youthful highway deaths, its backers
(with the help of the press) are casting it as the biggest kid-
saver since Jonas Salk.  The Nov. 12, 1999, Los Angeles Times
reported the new law cut injury and fatal crashes by drivers
under age 18 by "12 to 20 percent."  Who says? Fervent champions
of the law such as the Automobile Club of Southern California,
which the Times commissioned to analyze statistics cited in the
article and which called the numbers "wonderful."  Here's what
really happened: teen accidents (particularly fatal ones) had
been falling rapidly in the decade before the law. After the law
took effect on July 1, 1998, teen accidents rose and fatalities
skyrocketed, especially among the 16-year-olds it restricted the
most.  How can