The new no-drive zone covering only Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb, Fulton and Gwinnett is smaller than the 18 counties Barnes initially tried to blanket with a driving age increase to 17. But it's part of an ongoing push to get tougher on teen drivers involved in what lawmakers say is an alarming number of serious -- often fatal -- accidents in Georgia.

"These are the five counties with the heaviest traffic,''Barnes spokeswoman, Joselyn Butler, said of the compromise. "The governor's idea from the very beginning was to provide more experience for teenage drivers where traffic is the heaviest."

Some Republicans in the Senate committee tried to kill the governor's no-drive concept for 16-year-olds. And key House leaders, who also will have to approve the smaller five-county area, say the newest provision is only marginally more palatable than the 18-county plan they ripped out of Barnes' highway safety bill two weeks ago.

"I think we're in a pretty much hard-set, locked position,'' said Rep. Bobby Parham (D-Milledgeville), head of the House Motor Vehicles Committee. "The teen fatalities in this state are really not in the metropolitian area. Seventy-three persent are out in the rural areas. It's not as it's played up to be."

The state House will take up the other part of the teen driving equation Tuesday -- a package of reforms pushed by Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor and suburban Republicans that would require 40 hours of driver's instruction -- either in formal classes or by a parent -- and would limit teens to a single passenger in their first two years behind the wheel.

The passenger restriction is a move highway safety experts say is essential to removing districtions that lead to serious accidents.