Restrictions on young drivers starts Saturday

By CHERY SABOL

The Daily Inter Lake

Starting Saturday, new drivers younger than 18 will be on a much tighter legal leash in Montana.

The new graduated driver's license law is intended to ease teen drivers into experience on the road.

Beginning July 1, drivers younger than 18 who don't have a license or learners permit will have to follow the new rules that restrict when teens may drive, how much practice they have, and even who may be in their vehicles with them.

The Legislature passed the new law in 2005. Proponents pointed to information such as a study cited by an AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety that said crash rates for 16-year-old drivers are 20-percent lower in states with restrictions.

Drivers must be at least 14 1/2 years old to obtain a learners permit. It is required for the first six months of driving. During that time, teens must complete at least 50 hours of supervised driving, including at least 10 at night, with a parent or licensed driver older than age 18.

Next, at 15, the teen can get an intermediate license that restricts at what time of day he or she can drive.

During the first six months, no more than one unrelated passenger younger than 18 will be allowed to accompany the new driver. After six months, the teen may have no more than three young passengers. There are some exceptions for picking up siblings or school events.

With the provisional license, teens may not drive without supervision between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m., except under some circumstances, such as going to work or emergencies.

A full license will be issued when the driver turns 18 or completes the requirements of the restricted license. That means that teens may not obtain a full, unrestricted license before age 16. Before the law was enacted, those licenses were available to those as young as age 15.

Capt. Clancy King of the local Montana Highway Patrol office said he thinks the new law is "a good start."

Some states don't allow teenage drivers to have any passengers.

Teens, King said, "are very good" drivers, especially when they've passed a driver's education course. They haven't yet developed bad driving habits, he said.

But that's only when they're alone, King said. The presence of friends in a car is too much distraction for an inexperienced driver, he said.

Officers won't stop young drivers merely for looking as if they're not old enough or far enough along in the licensing process to have passengers or to be driving unsupervised.

Officers must have another primary reason for stopping teens, King said.

However, unlike adults, teens can be stopped solely for not wearing a seat belt, he said.

Parents can find "The Parent Role in Teen Driving and Graduated Driver's Licensing in Montana," along with information about the new law, on the Office of Public Instruction's Web site: www.opi.mt.gov and by typing GDL in the key word search.