Teens to Feel Impact of Driving Bill

If Congress passes a bill authorizing grants for those setting up graduated driving licensing (GDL) programs, states may receive incentives to fortify their licensing requirements.

The GDL incentive program is part of a larger bill (S. 528) that was introduced to Congress in March that would allocate funding for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. It would make up to $22 million a year available for the next two fiscal years to be used for training state officials, publishing content on new GDL laws, conducting teen traffic-safety programs and enforcing a two-stage licensing process if their programs meet federal standards.

A number of states already have GDL, a multi-step process for new drivers that includes passenger and nighttime-driving restrictions, in place.

The legislation includes minimum standards that comprise a two-stage process that issues beginning motorists with restricted licenses for between one and two years. Drivers with those licenses would be prohibited from using cell phones while behind the wheel, and restricted from getting behind the wheel at night and operating a car with more than one non-family passenger who is under 21 in certain situations.

The standards related to the two-stage process are based on those outlined in the STANDUP Act, (S-528) a similar bill that has been introduced twice to Congress but did not reach the law-making stage. Its last sponsored introduction occurred in March, 2011.

Insurers continue to support both the STANDUP Act and other state GDL laws, including Onlineautoinsurance.com, a personal lines property and casualty insurance aggregator. Other organizations that have offered public support include the American Insurance Association; Allstate Insurance Company; USAA Property & Casualty Insurance Group; Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety; Mourning Parents Act; Students Against Destructive Decisions, and the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Onlineinsurance.com notes the effects of GDL enactment, specifically in Delaware. A sponsor of the most recent version of the STANDUP Act is Sen. Tom Carper, the former Gov. of Delaware. According to the Online Auto Insurance News offering, a University of Delaware study showed the crash rate for 16-year-olds in that state was positively impacted following the enactment of a strict GDL law in 2000. Between 1999 and 2008, the annual volume of crashes involving 16-year-olds in the state fell by more than 60 percent.

In widely published news, the acronym STANDUP is explained as follows:

States must meet the following requirements under the STANDUP Act:

Three stages of licensing – learner’s permit, intermediate stage, and full licensure – should be used

Age 16 should be the earliest age for entry into the learner’s permit process

Nighttime driving while unsupervised should be restricted during the learner’s permit and intermediate stages, until full licensure at age 18

Driving while using communication devices (cell phone calls, texting) should be prohibited at least until full licensure at age 18

Unrestricted, full licensure should occur no earlier than age 18

Passengers should be restricted – no more than one non-familial passenger under age 21 unless a licensed driver over age 21 is in the vehicle – until full licensure at age 18

Onlineautoinsurance.com recommends that beginning motorists avoid potentially risky situations and that they put in an ample amount of supervised driving time behind the wheel, regardless of whether state law requires them to do so. Statistics show teenage drivers have much worse crash rates than older drivers, a fact that has pegged them as a high risk auto insurance group.

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