"Slow down!" and "Don't kill us!" Rogers remembers calling from the backseat that night in March 2005.

But the 19-year-old at the wheel didn't listen. Determined to catch up with a motorist who had cut them off, he barreled down the shoulder of a Mercer County road at twice the 30 m.p.h. speed limit, then lost control and struck a telephone pole.

Three years later, Rogers, of Hamilton Township, Mercer County, is still recovering from the accident that left her paralyzed from the chest down. (The driver, who suffered minor injuries, served half of a six-month prison sentence and is on five years of probation.)

The former cheerleader has become a passionate advocate for a New Jersey measure, dubbed "Jessica's Law," that she hopes will keep others from becoming casualties of road rage.

It's "a crusade for me," said Rogers, now 19, who received her high school G.E.D. and plans to attend Mercer County Community College while continuing physical therapy. "I don't want to see anyone go through what I've gone through."

A dozen states have enacted aggressive-driving laws to address what authorities say is a growing highway-safety problem. The New Jersey measure would add thousands in fines and a year in jail to a driver's other traffic penalties.

Nine more states are debating similar actions.

The bill before Trenton legislators, which is expected to come up for a vote this session, defines road rage as moving violations combined with threatening or insulting behavior, flashing lights, honking horns, even the use of one's finger to express displeasure.

Convicted motorists could pay $1,000, have their license suspended for a month and be required to attend an anger-management course. A subsequent offense could lead to a $3,000 fine, a four-month license suspension and another course.

U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (R., N.J.) is drafting similar legislation on the federal level.

In Pennsylvania, an aggressive-driving bill was introduced last year and remains in committee. It focuses on moving violations and would fine offenders $300.

States began passing laws to address aggressive driving about five years ago, but "the problem has been going on a lot longer," said Anne Teigen, a policy associate for the National Conference of State Legislatures in Denver.

With more criminal statutes in effect, Teigen said, statistics are expected to support anecdotal evidence of a rise in road-rage incidents.

In August, while New Jersey legislators considered Jessica's Law, a pregnant 27-year-old Cumberland County woman died after she was run over by an SUV in a rage case in the Laurel Lake section of Commercial Township in Cumberland County.

Some municipalities and counties aren't waiting for state or federal action.

In Buena Vista, where officials were frustrated by displays of aggressive driving not punishable under the traffic code, the township council passed an ordinance last month that focuses solely on motorists' behavior.

A driver who is discourteous or who causes "public inconvenience, annoyance or alarm" could be hit with a $1,000 fine and 90 days in jail. In cases where a motorist claims he or she was made fearful, a judge would determine if that response was reasonable.

The law, now being reviewed by the state, is expected to go into effect in a few weeks.

Neighboring Hamilton Township is considering a road-rage ordinance modeled on the Jessica's Law proposal.

"There is a gap in the law that has to be filled," said Robert J. Pinizzotto, prosecutor for both Atlantic County municipalities.

Incivility, including "hand gestures, mouthing off and beeping don't rise to the level of a criminal violation, but they can endanger other drivers by putting them in fear," Pinizzotto said.

In Buena Vista recently, a motorist was closely following his estranged wife's car and honking his horn, Pinizzotto said. The frightened woman pulled into a state police barracks. Her husband kept going. No charges could be pressed.

"I don't care if someone gives me the finger until he makes me afraid with hand gestures and starts screaming at me from his Humvee. That crosses the line," said Pinizzotto, founder and past president of the New Jersey State Municipal Prosecutors Association.

New Jersey State Sen. Bill Baroni (R., Mercer), a lawyer and the sponsor of Jessica's Law, said that he understood the impatience of municipalities but that he believes a statewide standard for aggressive driving was necessary.

The Jessica's Law concept - layering charges atop those for moving violations - is "much like the theory behind hate crimes," said Baroni, who teaches law at Seton Hall University.

"Jessica has truly been our hero on this, and we absolutely see her leading the way" in testimony in Trenton, Baroni said.

The measure is intended to give police a tool to cite aggressive drivers "before the accident," said the measure's other sponsor, Assemblywoman Linda R. Greenstein (D., Mercer), chair of the Judiciary Committee.

Jessica Rogers' father, Scott, hopes that passage of the New Jersey bill will be followed by federal legislation.

"If there was a law," he said, "you would think twice" about acting out on the road.

Authorities disagree, however, on whether penalties are the best way to reach impetuous or rage-prone drivers.

"We should require more education instead of fines and imprisonment," said Leon James, an expert on traffic psychology at the University of Hawaii.

Other states' proposals, including one being considered in New York, incorporate education about road rage into driver training. James would address the issue even earlier.

"When I testified before Congress, I presented a lifelong driver-education program. You start in kindergarten," James said. "We learn road rage as we grow up and we behave the way we are conditioned."

Drivers also should be required to take a skills-improvement course every five years, he said.

"You have to change the national psyche. Road-rage legislation can't do that," James said. "Don't attack the behavior. Change the behavior."

Jessica Rogers is trying to change that behavior one person at a time. She testified last year before Trenton lawmakers and has spoken to elementary school students.

"I tell them, 'If you see your mom and dad get mad, tell them to calm down. It's not worth it,' " she said.

"In a way, what happened to me was worth it because I can help change things now for the better."

Jessica Rogers describes her accident, recovery, and efforts to pass N.J. road-rage legislation at http://go.philly.com/jessica