2001 GEORGIA LEGISLATURE: Teenage driving has priority
First hearings on proposed restrictions will be held before state senators today.
Kathey Pruitt and David Pendered - Staff
Wednesday, January 17, 2001

With two teenage driving deaths in metro Atlanta already this year and a flurry of legislation aimed at the problem, the debate over teen driving restrictions accelerates today with the first legislative hearing on the issue.

For two hours, Senate lawmakers will hear from law enforcement officials who would be responsible for enforcing the new laws, as well as from parents and teens who would be affected most by the changes. Parents of teens killed or injured in recent accidents also are expected to testify.

Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor and Sen. Phil Gingrey (R-Marietta) hope for a speedy vote on the issue, first in committee Jan. 23, then by the full Senate three days later. But Public Safety Commissioner Robert Hightower waved a red flag Tuesday that may cause some lawmakers to reconsider the effects of the changes.

Speaking to House and Senate budget writers, Hightower said teens may have to make an appointment to take the on-road test to get a license under proposals requiring teens to be tested under real traffic conditions rather than in parking lots.

"We are woefully short of license examiners to give road tests," Hightower said. He said that nearly 10 percent of the department's examiner positions are vacant and starting salaries are too low to hire replacements.

Gov. Roy Barnes' budget for next year includes 75 new state troopers in metro Atlanta, but no money for license examiners.

Lawmakers' heightened interest mirrors the emotion with which Georgia residents have greeted proposals to crack down on teenage drivers. Along with changing the state flag, teen driving has dominated the early part of the Legislature's 2001 session.

Almost half the phone calls rolling into Barnes' constituent offices recently dealt with those topics. No other two issues even come close to generating the volume of e-mail, calls and letters to Taylor's office.

Lawmakers wasted little time before addressing the issues. Taylor and Gingrey are pushing legislation to require 40 hours of supervised instruction for first-time drivers and to prohibit teens from driving between midnight to 6 a.m. They also want to limit 16-year-olds to one unrelated teen passenger and permit only three passengers for 17-year-olds.

Barnes called for raising the minimum age for driving without adult supervision to 17 in metro Atlanta, and he proposes a 10 p.m.-to-6 a.m. driving curfew and one passenger limit for 16- and 17-year-olds.

The response has been mixed. Highway safety experts praise Barnes' latest proposals.

"It would make Georgia's graduated licensing system one of the best in the country," said Rob Foss of the Highway Safety Research Center at the University of North Carolina.

Four states impose 9 p.m. teen driving restrictions, including North Carolina, where, Foss says, the number of fatal night crashes involving teenagers statewide dropped from 13 to one within a single year. Only one other state, Mississippi, begins the curfew at 10 p.m. Seven states now have passenger restrictions similar to those proposed in Georgia, Foss said. New York uses a two-tiered license based on geography, prohibiting teens under 18 from driving in Manhattan.

Others say the ideas are misdirected. "The bottom line is the governor's and lieutenant governor's bills are what I call placebo bills," said John Morris, a local teen safety advocate. "They make the public feel good without really doing anything."

Most questions involve enforcement, and even those who would be in charge differ on how effective the proposed laws would be. Blakely police Chief Charles Middleton, head of the Georgia Association of Chiefs of Police, believes mandatory driver's ed is the way to go." Especially in rural areas, he said, curfews "present a judgment problem for those officers that they don't want to make, so sometimes they just look the other way."

But Frank Rotondo, executive director of the same organization, thinks restrictions like he grew up with in New York could curb teenage accidents in metro Atlanta. He says enforcement won't be a problem. The police chiefs' group hasn't taken an official position on the proposals.

Even if the legislation moves quickly through the Senate, it may face problems in the House, where Speaker Tom Murphy (D-Bremen) and others have signaled concerns. House Motor Vehicles Committee Chairman Bobby Parham (D-Milledgeville) plans to wait until all the teen driving proposals make it to his committee, then fold some into a single bill. Parham's not sure exactly what the final bill will say, but he's pretty sure what it won't. The curfew probably won't start as early as 10 p.m. and 16-year-olds probably wouldn't have to wait another year to get to drive in metro Atlanta.

PUBLIC HEARINGS
When/Where:
Senate Public Safety Committee public hearing on teen driving, 3 p.m. to 5 p.m., today, Room 450, state Capitol.
Proposals to be discussed:
> The hearing will begin with provisions proposed by Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor and Sen. Phil Gingrey (R-Marietta), but other ideas will be accepted or discussed.
> The Taylor/Gingrey proposal increases the nighttime driving curfew to midnight to 6 a.m. without exceptions and limits unrelated teenaged passengers to one for 16-year-olds and three for 17-year-olds. It also requires 40 hours of supervised driver training for new drivers and a tougher, on-road test.
> Gov. Roy Barnes has proposed raising the unsupervised driving age to 17 for metro Atlanta, imposing a 10 a.m.-to-6 p.m. nighttime driving curfew and limiting unrelated teenage passengers to one for 16- and 17-year-olds.