Teen driver bill gets Parham test
Jim Galloway - Staff
Sunday, February 18, 2001

This week, the matter of where and when your teenager can drive will be largely in the hands of a 58-year-old retired pharmacist from Milledgeville.

State Rep. Bobby Parham (D-Milledgeville) is chairman of the House Motor Vehicles Committee.

His small, nine-member committee is the place where --- by Parham's own description --- some of the most flaming, emotion-ridden bills in the state Capitol go to cool off.

If the topic is drunken driving, teen-driving, road rage --- if it has anything to do with wheels or the road --- a bill will usually pick up Parham's fingerprints before it becomes law.

"We're probably the third most active committee in the House. It's the way society has changed so much," Parham said. "The car has become such an integral part of everybody's life."

Sometime in the next few days, the House Motor Vehicles Committee is expected to make substantial changes to this session's two most important pieces of legislation regarding driving.

The first is House Bill 385, drafted by Gov. Roy Barnes. It would bar 16-year-olds from driving in 18 metro Atlanta counties without adult supervision; reduce the blood alcohol level required for a drunken driving charge; create the new crime of ''aggressive driving;'' and toughen the open container law.

Next will come Senate Bill 1, a bipartisan effort by Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor and state Sen. Phil Gingrey (R-Marietta). Already passed by the Senate, SB1 is aimed solely at teen drivers and would require 40 hours of driver training, either in formal drivers ed or on-road parental instruction, and limit nonfamily passengers. Most importantly, it would force 16-year-old drivers off the road by 10 p.m.

Heidi's law fiasco

Parham's 10 years as chairman of House Motor Vehicles roughly corresponds to the rise of traffic --- and traffic deaths --- as a major concern in metro Atlanta. Some driving safety supporters might describe him as anti-reform, but Parham would say he plays the role of devil's advocate --- making sure the "practicalities and mechanics" are in place.

"I don't like passing laws that are not enforceable --- what I call 'feel-good' laws," he said.

Nor is Parham a fan of haste. He points to Gov. Joe Frank Harris' 1985 effort at education reform, which tightened high school curriculum throughout the state. "We enacted that and nobody realized . . . we eliminated drivers ed. Nobody knew that," he said.

Two years ago, the Legislature passed what was known as "Heidi's law," named for Heidi Flye, a Cumming mother killed with her two young daughters in 1998 when her car was hit by a previously convicted drunken driver.

The legislation was passed quickly, and did not come through Parham's committee. "It wasn't properly handled. It was a purely emotional bill," the committee chairman said. "I have never seen a law so screwed up. Granted, when it got to the floor of the House, I voted for it. You cannot politically vote against a DUI bill once it ever gets out on the floor --- that's political suicide," he ssaid.

Parham said he began hearing from judges almost immediately, telling him that the language in the law was making it easier --- not harder --- for drivers facing second and third DUI offenses to be acquitted.

His committee revised the law the next year. And in the process, Parham also neutralized the high-tech aspect of Heidi's law. The legislation required those convicted of a second DUI to have an "interlocking" computer device installed on their cars, which would prevent ignition when it detected alcohol on a driver's breath.

A skeptical Parham said the device was too easily circumvented. All a drunk needed to start his car was a sober friend to blow into the device, Parham said.

The chairman can be just as tough on his own legislation. At the outset of this year's session, Parham introduced a bill to reinstate drivers education, but within the vo-tech system rather than the state's high schools. Then he had researchers put a price on the proposal: $34 million. "It's probably dead," he said.

As for this week's legislation, Parham has insisted on fine-tuning one provision of the bill. A driver would have to have a measurable amount of alcohol in his system before he could be prosecuted for having an open container of alcohol in his car. To do otherwise, Parham said, would be to destroy the practice of having designated drivers.

The chairman also says he has the votes to kill Barnes' idea of requiring teenagers to be 17 before they are allowed to drive alone in metro Atlanta. "It's unenforceable," Parham said. He thinks the same of a 10 p.m. curfew on 16-year-old drivers, a feature of the Senate bill.

It is also worth noting that curtailing the driving rights of 16-year-olds has also been opposed by House Speaker Tom Murphy (D-Bremen), who appointed Parham to his chairmanship.

Watchdogs, not 'aginners'

In addition to the rights of 16-year-old drivers, Parham has raised his eyebrows at another key provision of SB1, requiring road tests for driver licenses be given on public roads instead of parking lots. But no one has requested the money needed for the extra examiners that would require. Moreover, the task of license examining is to shift in July from the state Department of Public Safety to a new Department of Motor Vehicles.

Parham isn't sure the new department can handle the extra load. "It's going to be a disaster," he said. "The one thing you don't want is to tick off voters standing in line."

Gingrey, the Marietta lawmaker who originated the Senate driving bill, has spent the last two years negotiating with Parham. "I've found him to be one of the most down-to-earth, accessible members of the (House) leadership," Gingrey said. "I know he's close to the speaker (Murphy), so when the chairman tells me something, he's always spoken to the speaker about it first. So you know you're getting straight information."

The House Motor Vehicles Committee held a four-hour public hearing last week on the teen-driving provisions, and Gingrey was impressed that Parham was there throughout.

The senator doesn't think Parham or committee Vice Chairman Alan Powell (D-Hartwell) are opposed to any and all new restrictions on teen drivers. "They know the law," Gingrey said. "They're watchdogs, but I don't think they're 'aginners.' "

Parham has other interests. This session, he has introduced a number of bills regarding state employee retirement regulations. Baldwin County, his home district, with its prisons and regional mental health hospital, still has a large number of state employees.

The motor vehicles chairman also had a hand in the $10 million renovation of the Old Capitol in Milledgeville, which was completed last year. Even there, his philosophy shows through. He wanted it done without fuss.

"There are two types of people. You've got the purists, and then you've got the practical. If the purist had gotten in there, it would have probably cost us three times what it cost us to do," Parham said. "Say a door was made from wood from Columbia, and the nails were made in East Timor --- a purist would want the door to still come from Columbia and the nails to still come from East Timor. It's the purist versus the practical."

Parham didn't leave any doubt as to which side he fell on.

THE PARHAM FILE
Age: 52
Education: Pharmacy degree, University of Georgia, 1963.
Personal: Married, three grown children
Professional background: At one time, owned two free-standing pharmacies in Milledgeville, but sold out to partners.
Political background: Baldwin County commission, 1969 to 1975. First elected to the General Assembly in 1975. Appointed chairman of the House Motor Vehicles Committee in 1991.