Proposed legislation to change the state's graduated driver's licensing law was pulled back last week by its sponsor, but it has jump-started a wider discussion on ways to improve administering the 6-year-old statute without harming its effectiveness.
Sen. Missy Irvin, R-Mountain View, said she intends to file a new version of the bill to alleviate problems she sees with the graduated licensing process.
The number of teens dying in traffic crashes on Arkansas roads has dropped dramatically in the years since the Legislature enacted the law in 2009, a fact Irvin readily acknowledged last week. But she said administration of the law can be frustrating for parents, particularly in rural areas.
Act 394, which toughened Arkansas' previous graduated driver's licensing law, prohibits 16- and 17-year-olds with intermediate driver's licenses from driving between 11 p.m. and 4 a.m. unless accompanied by a licensed driver who is 21 or older. The exceptions are if the teen is driving to or from a school activity, church-related activity or job, or driving because of an emergency.
The law also limits the number of unrelated minors that an intermediate-licensed driver can have in the car to one unless accompanied by a licensed driver who is 21 or older. The law also prohibits the use of a cellphone or other wireless communication device by a driver who has a learner's permit (14- and 15-year-olds) or an intermediate license, except for emergency purposes.
In the year before its passage, 84 teens died on Arkansas roads, according to the the Arkansas Center for Health Improvement, a nonpartisan health policy center that says it is dedicated to improving the health of Arkansans. In 2010, a year after the law's passage, 43 teens died in traffic crashes in Arkansas.
Backers of the law don't attribute the dramatic drop solely to the Act 394, but they say its significance cannot be underestimated.
"While other factors such as varied economic conditions, increased motor vehicle safety measures and improved vehicle and road safety may contribute to these rate reductions, the evaluation findings provide strong support for the GDL as a working mechanism to protect Arkansas teen drivers," a 2014 analysis of the law's effectiveness concluded.
Irvin's bill, Senate Bill 49, would repeal what she believes is a little-known provision of the law that requires 16- and 17-year-olds to have a valid instruction permit or learner's permit before being issued an intermediate license.
Many parents whose children don't receive an instruction permit or learner's permit before they turn 16 are unfamiliar with the requirement, Irvin said at a meeting last week of the Senate Transportation, Technology and Legislative Affairs Committee.
Further, parents don't have one centralized location to go through to obtain a driver's license, with responsibilities divided between the Arkansas State Police and the Department of Finance and Administration.
"Parents are caught off-guard," she told the committee.
Filing the bill has "created a larger discussion on how we can engage the parents on this issue," Irvin said. "We pass bills and it doesn't filter down to the real world sometimes."
That issue is further compounded in rural areas, according to Irvin, by testing administered at limited times. A rainy day might force cancellation of testing, she said.
For example, the written and skills portions of the driver's license examinations are offered once a month in Marshall and Jasper and twice a month in Yellville, according to information available on the state police website.
Maj. Shawn Garner, the highway patrol commander for the western region of Arkansas for the state police, told the committee his agency has updated its website as part of an effort to make it easier for parents to navigate.
More improvements are planned, including changes to the Arkansas driver's manual study guide, Garner said.
Previously, he conceded, "there was no specific place to get all that information. We've got a lot of work to do on our end."
Irvin also faulted the different standards used by driver's license examiners around the state. A mistake on the skills test might fail an applicant at one site but only draw a warning at another, she said.
"There is a lot of frustration," Irvin said.
Garner told the committee that the state police has in place a set of regulations for all examiners to follow. They also will gather later this spring for a one- or two-day course on state police policies and procedures, he said.
Metro on 02/23/2015