The Ohio House of Representatives has just passed a new bill that officially changes the requirements for teen driver’s getting a full non-restricted license.
House Bill 293, also referred to as the Young Driver Protection Bill, will double the time that teen drivers under 18 will need to hold a learner’s permit before being eligible to apply for a driver’s license.
According to the language used in the bill, teen drivers will be required to hold a temporary permit for 12 months before receiving a full license. Before the bill passed, OH drivers under the age of 18 were only required to hold a temporary driving permit for a total of six months.
Ohio lawmakers are also working on imposing stricter driving curfews.
Teen drivers with a learner’s permit may face new driving restrictions that prohibit driving after 9 p.m. instead of after midnight.
Support for this new change comes from sobering statistics that link teen driving accidents to nighttime driving.
Co-sponsors of the bill, which include Republican Representative Gary Scherer and Democratic Representative Michael Sheehy, expressed their concerns to the Columbus Dispatch by stating that 75 percent of nighttime crashes in Ohio involving teen drivers occur between 9 p.m. and midnight.
Impact Teen Drivers, a California-based non-profit organization committed to raising awareness about the dangers of reckless driving, has come out in support of the new law changes in the state of Ohio.
In any case, the bill hasn’t been assigned to a House committee yet. Before being passed, it must clear the House and Senate by December 2018.
The new curfew proposal comes at a time when another law, which has also taken effect, changed driver’s education requirements for adults in Ohio.
Under a previous Ohio bill, drivers over 18 were allowed to take the driver’s test an unlimited number of times before they passed and received a full driver’s license. However, OH residents will no longer have such privileges. In recent years, many first-time drivers in Ohio had been reportedly waiting until they were 18 or older to get a driver’s license of any kind, said Karhlton Moore, executive director of the Ohio Office of Criminal Justice Services.
“That means we have more people on the roads who haven’t gone through any type of driver education,” Moore continued.
As such, starting on July 1, 2017, Ohio drivers over 18 who don’t pass the driver’s test on their first try will be required to take an abbreviated driving course. The course consists of four hours of online or in-person classroom instruction, plus four hours of behind-the-wheel instruction with a certified instructor or up to 24 hours of driving accompanied by a licensed adult who is at least 21.
“You might be able to maneuver a car. You might be able to drive a car,” Moore continued. “But that doesn’t mean you’re aware of everything you need to be aware of when you’re out on the road.”
Minors under the age of 18 are required to take a complete driver’s ed course, which consists of eight hours of in-car instruction and 24 hours of classroom instruction, before they can take a driving exam.