When a teen dies in a car accident, the grief is shared by the entire community. Everyone asks, “Could that accident have been avoided?” While no law can prevent all accidents, tougher license requirements for people learning to drive have been shown to help.
On March 27, the Senate decided to make Iowa roads safer with two key changes to our state’s graduated driver licensing program. Under Senate File 115:
1. Drivers under 18 must hold an instruction permit for a full 12 months. That way every teen has a chance for supervised driving practice in Iowa’s four seasons. The most dangerous time for new drivers is in the first six months, but accident rates decrease with each additional month behind the wheel.
2. Drivers under 18 are allowed to have only one unrelated passenger in the vehicle during their first 6 months with an intermediate license. Parents may opt their teen out of this restriction. Accident rates jump dramatically when young drivers have young passengers in the car, according to study by AAA’s Foundation for Traffic Safety.
Forty-five other states with similar laws have benefited from a decrease in the number of fatalities and accidents on their roads. We hope the House will also approve this effort to make Iowa roadways safer and send it to the Governor for his signature.