New drivers might face stricter licensing rules

Legislators hope more experience and training will help teenagers avoid traffic accidents.

By Steve Oslica

Published Jan. 31, 2006

Soon your little brother or sister might be restricted to drive with only three of his or her friends at a time.

Teenage drivers in Missouri are ranked ninth on a list of the worst teenage drivers in the United States, according to a study released by the National Safety Council based on data from 2003.

Legislators are looking to remedy this problem with two new bills that would strengthen the requirements to get a driver's license.

One bill sponsored by Sen. John Griesheimer, R-Washington, would increase the number of required training hours from 20 to 40 and require that 10 of those hours be at night.

When someone younger than 18 in Missouri receives a driver's license, it is considered an intermediate license. According to Griesheimer's bill, during the first six months of an intermediate license, the holder would not be allowed to operate a motor vehicle with more than one passenger who is younger than 19 and who is not related to the driver. After six months, the holder cannot operate a motor vehicle with more than three non-related passengers under the age of 19.

Another bill introduced by Rep. Cynthia Davis, R-O'Fallon, and co-sponsored by Rep. Bob Nance, R-Excelsior Springs, would require drivers under the age of 18 to take formal driver's education instead of turning in a statement from their parents that affirms they have driven 20 hours.

John Ulczycki, the director of transportation safety for the NSC, said he thought Griesheimer's bill would have a greater impact than the bill by Davis and Nance.

"One of the main reasons teens get in accidents is a lack of experience behind the wheel," he said. "Forty hours of training is great, but we'd like it to be even more. Also, every time a young person has a passenger, it raises the chances of crash involvement. We haven't seen a correlation between crash risk and drivers' education classes. It can make you a better driver but doesn't necessarily help lower your risk of being involved in a crash."

House Minority Leader Jeff Harris, D-Columbia, had questions about Griesheimer's bill.

"We have to ask how it would affect the farm economy and kids on farms that need to have more than one person in the car with them," Harris said. "We would also have to look at to what extent it would affect students' ability to have a part-time job and things like athletic events that they carpool to."

Of the 1,006 fatal crashes in Missouri in 2004, 22 percent involved a driver under the age of 21, according to a report by the Missouri State Highway Patrol.

Nance said driver's education is not required in schools, which keeps the program's cost lower for the state.

Rep. Judy Baker, D-Columbia, expressed concerns about possibly making the new drivers pay for the education program.

"I do think we have a problem that needs to be addressed with teenage driving, and I think we went backwards when we took driver's education out of schools," Baker said. "We need an avenue for instruction without cost before the drivers' test. I would want to make sure it was available at no cost to teens so there wouldn't be two classes of who gets it and who doesn't."