Buckle up and hold on tight, parents of budding teenage drivers - you'll be spending at least 50 hours in the car with your kid behind the wheel under a bill Gov. Pete Wilson signed into law this week.
Prompted by an expected increase in teen driving fatalities, the broad new law also restricts when new teen drivers can be on the road and who can ride with them. The American Automobile Association has called the new law, which takes effect July 1, 1998, the most comprehensive "graduated licensing" law of the 20 that exist in the nation."With one teen dying on average every other day in California, the carnage is just too great," said state Sen. Tim Leslie, R-Tahoe City and author of the bill. "This is going to help teens and eventually they'll understand it, I think, because their friends will still be with them."
Leslie named The Brady/Jared Teen Driver Safety Act of 1997 for Brady Grasinger and Jared Cunningham, two teenagers who were killed in separate auto accidents in Southern California.
"I think most of the teens probably won't like this very much," said Kathryn Ripley of Newcastle, mother of 16-year-old Amy Ripley, who died at the wheel May 26, just two months after receiving her license. "But I hope it will make the parents feel a little more comfortable sending their kids out on the road now."
Supporters cite a long list of statistics in making their case for tougher teen driving rules. In California in 1995, according to the automobile association, 18,000 teenage drivers were injured. Teen drivers represented only 4 percent of the state's drivers that year but made up 9 percent of all drivers involved in fatal crashes and 10 percent of those involved in accidents with injuries. In addition, 45 percent of teen accidents occurred between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m.
And advocates say the numbers are likely to get even grimmer.
The new law sharply increases the requirements for teenagers to get a driver's license and restricts their driving after they get a provisional license.
At present, 15 1/2-year-olds can get an instruction permit if they have completed driver's training classes. A provisional license can be issued after 30 days if the new driver has turned 16 and his parents certify that they spent 30 hours supervising their child's driving.
Under the new rules, teen drivers must wait six months before receiving the provisional license. And parents will have to certify that they spent 50 hours of driving supervision, 10 of them at night.
While parents could still lie about the amount of supervised driving practice their child has had, the new requirement for nighttime practice is a major change that may deter some from being untruthful, said William Madison, a spokesman for the Department of Motor Vehicles.
In addition, the new law adds restrictions on the provisional licensee. For the first year, the provisional driver may not drive between midnight and 5 a.m. unless accompanied by his parent or a certified driving instructor who is at least 25 years old. And for the first six months of that period, the new driver cannot transport passengers under 20 unless supervised.
The law allows exceptions if a driver has a medical, family or job-related necessity or is going to or from a "school-authorized activity" and "reasonable transportation facilities are inadequate."
Drivers will have to carry a signed statement from a doctor, parent, employer or principal explaining the driving necessity.
With no organized opposition, the bill had relatively little trouble in the Legislature.
Dist. by Scripps Howard News Service.