The Lane Ranger: Teen driving laws move state in the right direction
Joey Ledford - Staff
Friday, March 23, 2001

It's almost unbelievable, since the debate wandered off into irrelevancies like unenforceable no-drive zones and the morality of double-dating, but the Georgia Legislature has significantly improved the state's teen driving law.

Most of the attention focused on Gov. Roy Barnes' attempt to raise the driving age to 17 --- first in 18 counties surrounding metro Atlanta and then in the four core counties. Most safety advocates didn't consider that a high priority. There is very little evidence raising the driving age does anything other than alter the age of the youngest victims.

The 16-year-old driving age statewide stands unchanged. Barnes has pledged to come back next year and try again. A better idea would be to focus instead on getting more state troopers to patrol the interstates.

When the state House focused on teen passenger limitations, a proven lifesaver in other states, the arguments became ridiculous. If passengers were limited in vehicles driven by rookie drivers, some lawmakers argued, how could teenagers double date?

There was even a pro-double-dating proposal that said a teenager couldn't haul more than one friend of the same sex, which probably had litigation-happy civil libertarians drooling.

Luckily, at the end, with time running out, good judgment prevailed.

At 11:58 p.m. Wednesday, two minutes before the clock expired on the 2001 session, a version of Senate Bill 1 originally introduced by Sen. Phil Gingrey of Marietta and Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor emerged from a conference committee and was approved.

For the first six months after a 16-year-old gets a license, he or she will not be allowed to carry any passengers of any age who are not family members. After six months, teen drivers will be limited to three non-family teenage passengers.

That's a significant improvement over the current law. Studies abound about the dangers of just-licensed teen drivers and how their fatality risk escalates when they are distracted by noisy peers.

The teen driving curfew was also improved --- by a little. Drivers 16 and 17 years old will be prohibited by law from driving between midnight and 6 a.m. --- with no exceptions, not even jobs or school or religious activities.

The current law keeps 16- and 17-year-olds off the road between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m., but includes a laundry list of exceptions.

For the first time, Georgia parents will be required to certify that their teenager has behind-the-wheel experience. The bill that passed requires that teens get either 40 hours of driving time with a parent, or 20 hours coupled with completion of a driver's education course.

Significantly, the bill also makes it much easier for teens to lose their license for moving violations. Previously, one major four-point violation like speeding 24 mph over the limit meant a six-month suspension, but it took seven two-point violations like speeding 14 mph over to cost a teen the right to drive. Effective Jan. 1, if Barnes signs the bill into law, a total of four points --- two tickets --- within a year means a suspension.

The bill that passed also requires an on-road driving test for teen drivers, but since the Legislature failed to fund the 75 new driver's license examiners state officials said were needed to make this happen, that provision will be delayed until enough examiners are available.

Gingrey said Thursday he was very pleased with the legislation that emerged.

"I've looked at all the other states and . . . I really believe that once this bill is enacted, Georgia will have the strongest graduated licensing law in the nation," he said. "I think it will become the (national) model."

Brian Luders, a Duluth parent whose scaredgeorgia.org Web site became an information resource during the debate, praised lawmakers for doing the right thing.

"I've said all along I didn't want to come to the end of this and get nothing," he said. "We've gotten something. The art of politics is compromise."

e-mail: [email protected]