Bill proposes limited driving for teens

MAT-SU -- A Juneau representative, backed by Mothers Against Drunk Drivers, has introduced a bill in the Legislature that would add a third step to licensing of young drivers.

Rep. Bruce Weyhrauch recently introduced House Bill 213, Provisional Driver's License. The bill creates a three-tiered system in which young drivers would pursue a full, unrestricted driver's license. The current Alaska law requires drivers under the age of 18 to hold a learner's permit for six months before testing for a full driver's license. Under HB 213, a graduated system would be enacted that begins at 14, as the current system does, when a teen-ager is eligible to apply for a learner's permit. At the age of 16, however, when drivers can currently receive a full license, the young driver would be issued a provisional license that includes verification of driving experience, limits the hours of driving and eliminates other teens in the vehicle.

The proposed bill is based on the Graduated Driver Licensing System, a program developed by the U.S. Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to give young drivers more time to learn how to operate a vehicle. More than 40 U.S. states have already adopted some form of graduated licensing, although each state's conditions vary to some degree. The first is a supervised learner's phase, lasting a minimum of six months, as Alaska law now requires. Some systems, such as the one proposed by Weyhrauch, also require a certain number of hours that a teen-ager has to drive to reach the next level -- similar to accumulating a number of supervised flight hours before flying an airplane solo. Weyhrauch's proposal requires a parent or guardian's certification that the youth has acquired at least 50 hours of driving experience, 10 of which are nighttime hours.

Numerous reports, including Alaska Department of Transportation's Alaska Traffic Accidents report, indicate that teens are involved in more collisions than any other age group. According to ATA's 2001 report, drivers between the ages of 14 and 20 were involved in 4,457 collisions, with driver injuries occurring in 706 of those collisions and seven fatalities. Alcohol and drug abuse, lack of experience and distractions are the leading cause of these collisions.

Riz Arbelovski, Valley mother of two teen drivers, agreed that many 16-year-olds lack the experience and judgment needed behind the wheel. "I feel my kids right now are not as responsible as I was at that age," Arbelovski said.

The intermediate step in graduated licensing allows teens more hours of unsupervised driving, but only in less risky situations by limiting hours of driving and the number of passengers. California was the first state to ban teen-age passengers altogether, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety's October report, "Graduated Licensing: A Blueprint for North America." The ban applies to the first six months of a 12-month intermediate phase, unless an adult is present in the car. Weyhrauch's bill proposes limiting passengers in this phase to only a parent or one person 25 years of age or older. For some parents this idea is not so appealing.

"It might be a difficulty for some people," said Adel Kuper, a Wasilla mother who depends on her older children for transportation of their younger siblings.

"Yes," agreed Arbelovski, "I could see maybe two passengers."

For many teens the privilege of driving is tied into those responsibilities.

"The whole point of us driving is so we can pick up our brothers and sisters, and run errands for our parents," said Kuper's 14-year-old daughter Honnah, who also said she was looking forward to the responsibility.

Full-privilege licensing becomes available when conditions of the first two stages are met. This usually means the driver has incurred no violations or accidents during the first two phases. Under HB 213, a teen-ager could apply for a full unrestricted license after 12 months of issuance of a provisional license, as long as they have not had any traffic citations or convictions for at least six months before the application.

According to the IIHS report, though many states and provinces have adopted portions of the graduated licensing system, there is too much variation between them. The report rates each state as either poor, marginal, acceptable or good, in their new licensing requirements. Alaska was among 10 states rated as marginal, in the company of South Dakota, Nevada, Minnesota and Kentucky, to name a few. Rated poor by IIHS were Arizona, Hawaii, Kansas, Montana, Oklahoma and Wyoming. Twenty-six states were rated acceptable, and nine received the top rating of good.

Graduated licensing is supported by many organizations, including the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators, The Centers for Disease Control and the American Academy of Family Physicians. Information about HB 213 can be found at www.akrepublicans.org/weyhrauch/23/spst/weyh_hb213. More information about graduated licensing can be found on various Web sites, including IIHS, at www.iihs.org/safety_facts/state_laws/grad_license.htm, or www.hwysafety.org/

safety_facts/qanda/images/grad_lic.pdf.