If the law had been in effect that night, Lacey might be loving life as a freshman at Chestnut Hill College, which had recruited her to play soccer.

Instead, her family is consumed by all they'd have done differently, if only they'd known what HB163 aims to make common knowledge in Pennsylvania:

That young drivers are different from the rest of us.

"I live with the guilt and the decisions that I should have made, could have made, would have made," says Lacey's mom, Denise, who lives in Fishtown with her husband, Frank, their son and two daughters. "It hurts."

Last April 29, Lacey, a senior at Little Flower High School, was en route with six friends to a post-prom Poconos weekend when their Suzuki SUV hit a cement lane divider and flipped on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Lacey died at the scene; the others sustained severe injuries.

No evidence of drug or alcohol use was apparent, and the accident is still under investigation. What is known, though, is that the hour was late, the roads were wet and the driver of the car was just 17.

If HB163 had been law, Lacey never would've been in that car.

Just as we once didn't know that cigarettes could harm us, we never knew, at least so specifically, that teen drivers could, too.

New studies, though, show 16-year-old drivers have crash rates three times higher than 17-year-old drivers and five times higher than 18-year-old drivers.

Why? The part of the brain affecting risk-taking behavior and judgment isn't fully developed until we're closer to our twenties - and that's when those crash rates drops substantially.

That's why Pennsylvania, along with all but 10 states, instituted a graduated driver's license. It aims to ease young drivers through a "phased" approach to driving, imposing limitations on driving by teens.

But House Bill 163 would toughen the rules in two important ways, by requiring 65 hours of driving experience for teens seeking a license, including at least 10 hours of nighttime driving and five hours of driving in inclement weather. Currently, the requirement is 50 hours, without specification of conditions.

And it would forbid junior drivers to have more than one passenger under age 18 in the car, since studies show that more teens in a car equal more distractions for a teen driver.

"I didn't learn any of this until after Lacey died," says Denise Gallagher. "If the knowledge is out there, why don't more parents know it?"

The Gallaghers, with others, have been lobbying Harrisburg to pass HB163 (to be called "Lacey's Law," a suggestion made in this column last year).

Their campaign, dubbed "Our Promise to Lacey" (go to www.thelaceyfund.org for info), is sorely needed. The bill, which passed in the House, is stalled in the Appropriations Committee, to the frustration of State Rep. Katharine Watson, R-Bucks, who introduced it a year ago.

"There's a nostalgia among many of my colleagues for the days when they piled into cars and rode around," she says. But "there were fewer cars on the road back then."

Also, she adds, "There's a mindset among many Pennsylvanians that they don't want the state telling them how to raise their children," she says. "They see the bill as an infringement on their right" to decide when their teens are ready to drive.

But their mindfulness won't protect their kids - or any of us - from teen drivers whose parents aren't as attentive.

If you agree, go to www.legis.state.pa.us and find your state reps. Then e-mail them a plea to get behind Lacey's Law.

Before another young driver gets behind the wheel too soon. *

E-mail polaner@phillynews.com or call 215-854-2217. For recent columns:

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