An Atlanta lawmaker influenced by a series of teen driving deaths is sponsoring legislation to increase the age at which drivers can get a license and to provide funding for high school driver education programs.
Rep. Keisha Waites, D-Atlanta, said the legislation would also make permanent the traffic offense add-ons that are supposed to go to pay for driver education programs as part of Joshua's Law, which was created in the mid-2000s. The add-ons are set to expire next summer.
Waites’ bill would increase the age at which a teen could get a license from 16 to 17. Currently, state law mandates that teens wait until 17 if they haven’t taken driver education training.
Waites said she was influenced to sponsor the legislation by recent teen driving fatalities, including the recent deaths of Dacula High School teens Jared and Jaison Brown.
“It has nothing to do with age, it’s the (driving) experience,” Waites said. “All we are trying to do is give them a few more hours (of training) before we put them out on the road.”
Since Waites is a Democrat in a Republican-dominated General Assembly her legislation's chances are iffy, but some GOP colleagues have also voiced support for changing state law so that the General Assembly cannot divert fee money designated for things like driver education. Also, lawmakers will almost certainly consider legislation during the 2016 session to continue Joshua's Law programs.
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