Panel Votes To Raise Age To Drive: Compromise Eyed As Debate Heats Up
by Raja Mishra, Boston Globe
3/31/2006
A state legislative committee approved a bill yesterday that would raise the legal driving age to 17 1/2 and toughen rules on young drivers, a sweeping proposal already facing fervent opposition from some lawmakers and parents.
After a short but contentious hearing, the bill's sponsors said they would consider making the new minimum driving age 17, still six months more than current law, in order to win passage of the bill.
'If at the end of the day that's the compromise, I think we'll still go a long way toward having better drivers on the road," said state Senator Steven A. Baddour, a Methuen Democrat and cochairman of the Joint Committee on Transportation, which recommended the measure yesterday on a 5-to-3 vote.
The full House is expected to take up the measure in two weeks, with legislative leaders saying the bill is a priority in this busy session. The debate follows several high-profile teenage driving tragedies, most recently crashes in Reading and Hopkinton that each ended two young lives.
Yesterday's committee vote was the first public airing of the provisions in the most sweeping overhaul of drivers licensing regulations in a generation. The bill would:
- Raise the minimum age for junior operator's licenses to 17 1/2 and learner's permits to 16 1/2.
- Extend the duration of learner's permits, when teenagers must be
accompanied by a licensed driver who is at least 21, from six months to
1 year.
- Allow the Registry of Motor Vehicles to overhaul driver's education courses around the state.
- Require 50 hours of supervised driving for learner's permit holders, up from 12 hours.
- Toughen penalties for junior operator's license violations such
as driving after midnight or driving with minors as passengers when not
accompanied by an adult.
- Prohibit those with learner's permits and junior operator's licenses from using cellphones while driving.
- Impose a one-year license suspension for minors caught drag racing.
A spokesman for Governor Mitt Romney signaled yesterday that the governor was open to the bill but refrained from commenting on specific provisions.
''We look forward to reviewing whatever it is the Legislature may send to us," spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom said in an e-mail. ''We'd like to reserve our rights until we actually see a bill, but we recognize that the junior operator laws may be in need of an update."
In yesterday's hearing, there appeared to be strong support for most every provision of the bill, save for the driving age increase. That provision drew some heated comments.
State Representative Carl M. Sciortino Jr., a Somerville Democrat and committee member, said it would be unfair to doubt the driving abilities of 17-year-olds when the nation is sending young people off to war.
''We ask them to make huge sacrifices, yet we're telling them they are not responsible enough to get their driver's license," he said in an interview after the hearing.
The 27-year-old lawmaker said he voted for the bill because he supports the other provisions, but added that he plans to lobby his older colleagues, virtually the entire Legislature, to jettison the age provision.
Some lawmakers said they have been inundated with comments on the bill from constituents in recent days, though with varying results.
''I got 100 e-mails and only two supported the bill," said state Representative Bradford Hill, an Ipswich Republican who has long worked on the issue, opposes the minimum driving age increase, but said he sees the bill as ''a good starting point."
Things were different in Baddour's corner of the state.
''Most of the parents I've talked to have been supportive," he said, adding that he recognized that ''it has raised tremendous angst among young people."
The bill's other primary sponsor is state Representative Joseph F. Wagner, a Chicopee Democrat, who said most lawmakers were similarly divided on the age issue.
''Talk to 200 members and see how many answers you get," he said. ''This bill is a starting point."