LITTLE ROCK — Dear Mahatma: There seems to be a new trend in the Little Rock area of 14-year-olds receiving a “hardship license.” What are the requirements, and how many hardship licenses have been issued?
- Have A Great Day
Dear Great Day: The requirements for licenses and permits of all kinds stretch on for approximately 6.2 million words. Numerous cups of coffee led us to Arkansas Code Annotated 27-16-701, “Application for license or instruction permit - restricted permits.” Inside this thing is a section that says the Office of Driver Services may issue a restricted permit for employment-related purposes.
We quote, dryly: “In cases in which demonstrable financial hardship would result from the failure to issue a learner’s or driver’s license, the Department of Finance and Administration may grant exceptions only to the extent necessary to ameliorate the hardship.”
Another section of the code allows the Office of Driver Services to waive the age limits so that a 14-year-old may get a license.
Now to the trend you are seeing. Or not seeing. The Office of Driver Services, bless its heart, dug deeply into its database and found the number of licenses issued to the youngest of drivers over the past five years.
First, statewide.
In 2008, 224 licenses.
In 2009, 225. In 2010, 261.
In 2011, 274. And in 2012, through Dec. 19, 314. Spread across 75 counties ...
What about your home county of Pulaski?
In 2008, five. In 2009, six. In 2010, 11. In 2011, 12.
And in 2012, through Dec.
19, 15. If we were prone to hyperbole, we would point out that in Pulaski County the number of hardship licenses tripled over this five-year period - literally exploded - from five to 15.
Dear Mahatma: You wrote that a driver should not enter an intersection unless he can go on through. I was trained to enter an intersection on the green light even when making a left turn and traffic was still coming. Truck drivers call this “owning the intersection.” That’s what I do, but I see other drivers who don’t enter the intersection until either the left turn arrow turns green or the oncoming traffic clears. Which is correct?
- Confused Again
Dear Confused Again: We understand what you mean about owning the intersection. But we are compelled to quote directly from the Arkansas Driver License Study Guide, a publication of the Arkansas State Police.
“Drivers may not enter an intersection unless they can get through it without having to stop. You should wait until traffic clears, so that you are not blocking the intersection.”
The state police are not making this up. Arkansas Code Annotated 27-51-1302 is titled, “Stopping, standing, or parking prohibited in specified places.” Drivers may not stop, stand or park a vehicle in multiple places.
One of those places is “within an intersection.” Mahatma@arkansasonline.com
Arkansas, Pages 9 on 02/02/2013