Fresh GreenLight Press Release
Effective September 1, 2010, Teen Drivers under the age of 18 are restricted to only 1 passenger in the car. This law applies to ALL drivers under the age of 18 – even those with their Senior License from HS Driver Ed.
The other important change for new teen drivers is that those teens who take HS Drivers Ed are now required to complete 50 hours of supervised driving with a parent or instructor – 15 hours of that driving must take place in the evening. Previously this wasn’t required – meaning teens could go for their road test with only 6 hours of driving instruction.
Why is this a good thing?
Most of you know that car crashes are the # 1 killer of teens in America – killing over 6000 teens a year. And the majority of those deaths are caused by inexperience and distraction behind the wheel. The truth is, HS Drivers Ed hasn’t changed in years and most experts agree it’s totally ineffective at reducing accidents.
Most states, including New York, are enacting Graduated Drivers Licensing laws which slowly allow more responsibilities (passengers, nighttime driving) once Teen Drivers have at least a year or so of experience driving. GDL laws have been proven to save lives and makes our teens safer on the road.
re: New Teen Driving Laws in New Rochelle State
I presume this article is about NY State and not New Rochelle State. However, it is still not clear whether this overly restrictive law is specific to the City of New Rochelle, or whether this absurd law is universal throughout NY State, or perhaps it confusingly exists in some Counties, Cities, Towns, Villages of NY State while unenforceable in other NY State municipalities.
I’m 59 years old, and this law doesn’t personally affect me, but it makes no sense. When I was in High School the only restrictions to my Jr License was that I could not drive at night, nor in NYC nor Nassau County, nor were any driving courses required for any NYS Driver License at any age. If I had taken an optional Drivers Ed Course, I would have had a full Adult Drivers License at 17.
While I think all Drivers of any age must take required courses on driving, I think it is irrational and overly-restrictive to overly-limit Junior Licensees in the way this new law is described.
To the extent that Teenagers might be poor drivers, the real problem is no doubt that they are new drivers. As such, the same restrictive rules should be applied to all new drivers no matter what their age, for the same period of time as Teen drivers. This would make the roads even safer than just restricting Teens.
I am also amazed, that if a Teen can’t drive with more than one passenger, that this means a Teen can’t drive with both parents in the car. That doesn’t make a bit of sense.
In fact, this new law will only put more Teens behind the wheel. Whereas, up to now, four Teens could carpool to school in one car, the new law would encourage twice as many cars, and twice as many Teens driving. This also doubles the pollution.
If NYS wants to make roads safer, it should require new written and road tests of all drivers every ten years, as well as every four years for drivers 70 or older.