Teen-driving dilemma: Existing laws tough, but pressure mounts for more restriction

By Joey Ledford
Atlanta Journal-Constitution Staff Writer

As the debate rages on as to whether we should strengthen the laws for teenage drivers, it's time to step back and examine what we've already done.

The existing laws can be improved, but Georgia's teen-driving statutes are already pretty tough. Yet, as teenagers continue to die in alarming numbers, pressures are bound to increase to make them even more restrictive.

I've heard people argue that we ought to tie a teen's driver's license to his or her school performance. We've already done that. In fact, since 1998, 23,517 Georgia teens have lost their licenses for running up too many unexcused absences or for threatening or striking teachers or selling or possessing drugs, alcohol or a weapon on campus.

Some have argued that we should extend the period in which teenagers have to drive on a learner's permit before they get a license. But the teen-driving laws already require teenagers to hold a learner's permit for a year before they qualify for a provisional Class D license.

You must be at least 15 to get a learner's permit. If you wait until three or so months before your 16th birthday to get a permit, as was a common practice before the 1997 passage of the teen-driving law, you won't be able to get your license until three months before you turn 17.

Any driving teens do during that learner's permit year has to occur while there is a licensed driver 21 or older in the car. Lawmakers felt that would give teens plenty of time to get experience. But it is clear many 16-year-old driver's lack experience, which indicates either a lack of adequate driver training or parental supervision, or perhaps both.

Many critics of the current teen-driving law feel Georgia's provision allowing teen drivers to carry three passengers under 21 who aren't family members is one of its most glaring weaknesses. Studies indicate that teen crashes are much more likely to occur when peers are present in the car, and the metro area has experienced repeated instances of crashes in which the car is packed with teens.

Defenders of the current passenger provisions say toughening them would effectively do away with double dating, a tradition as time-tested as the 16-year-old driving age. It is ironic that, at a time when public officials are promoting carpooling to tame traffic and clean the air, the group most likely to carpool is in more danger when its members climb into the car together.

It is the 16-year-old driving age that appears most likely to be changed. Gov. Roy Barnes told me earlier this month he favors a hike in the driving age, a cause advanced by state Sen. Phil Gingrey (R-Marietta), whose legislative effort to raise the age limit to 17 failed last year.

Gingrey, who has immersed himself in the teen-driving issue, is no longer certain that raising the driving age is the answer. "I want to tweak the current law and try and save the lives of some of those 16-year-olds," he said last week.

The toughest provisions of the teen-driving law involve moving violations. Any driver younger than 21 convicted for any of the following offenses loses his or her driver's license for at least six months:

DUI. With the law's tough "zero tolerance" provision, young drivers face conviction with a blood alcohol level as low as .02. Georgia's per se intoxication standard is .10, but adults can face charges at lower levels if officers detect other evidence of impairment.

Speeding 24 mph or more over the speed limit. Legislative attempts to revoke that provision failed in 1998.

Eluding or attempting to elude a police officer.

Racing, reckless driving, hit-and-run, passing on a hill or curve, passing a stopped school bus or leaving the scene of an accident.

Purchasing an alcoholic beverage as a minor or possession of alcohol.

As of Aug. 6, the tough provisions of the teen-driving laws had resulted in the license suspensions of 69,744 young Georgia motorists since the law went into effect in 1997. That number represents 8.7 percent of the licensed drivers under 21.

Another provision many want changed is the teen-driver curfew. Currently, teen drivers are prohibited from driving from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. unless they are going to or from a job, a school or church event, or in the event of an emergency.

Many model teen-driving laws recommend much earlier curfews -- 10 or 11 p.m.

The missing link in the teen-driving equation is driver training. Georgia currently requires no trainingwhatsoever, and because the state's driving test requires nothing more than dodging a few cones and parallel parking in a parking lot, anyone capable of starting a car and putting it in gear is likely to get a license.

Mandating a driver's education course ensures at least some experience for teen drivers as well as classroom training on the dangers of traffic and rules of the road. Six hours on the road, as is the current driver's ed requirement, is far from enough, but it's better than nothing.

Gingrey said he's leaning toward introducing legislation to make driver's ed mandatory -- with a required 10 to 12 hours on the road instead of six -- while tightening the curfew and the passenger restrictions of the current law.

"That may not be the final version, but the more I think about it and what's doable, I think that's the way to go," he said, adding that he plans to work closely with legislative leaders of both parties.

"I want to be on the same page with them," he said.