Thread: Only for American Teenagers not illegals

http://www.townonline.com/reading/opini ... 5106847743

"eliminated a provision aimed at cracking down on illegal immigrants who are driving without authorization."

Junior Operator’s Bill completed, awaiting final approval
By State Sen. Richard R. Tisei
Wednesday, January 03, 2007 - Updated: 02:54 PM EST



Months after its initial passage, the highly publicized teen driving bill has finally moved to the governor’s desk for his review and approval. House and Senate conferees assigned to reconcile differences between the bills had taken much longer than anticipated to come to a compromise on a final version.

A series of tragic accidents across the state of one or more teenagers killed in car crashes brought this issue to the forefront in 2006. Unfortunately, my district was also affected as two Reading families where forced to deal with the unimaginable; that their teenage child was killed in a motor vehicle accident. Shortly thereafter, a bill was introduced by the Joint Committee on Transportation proposing tough new restrictions on young drivers.

One thing that was clear to everyone involved in this issue is that the Junior Operator Law is not doing enough. Car accidents are the leading cause of death for individuals between the ages of 4 and 34. Statistics show that drivers between the ages of 16 and a half and 18 have a significantly higher rate of accidents than other age groups. Under current law, a teenager can get a learner’s permit at 16, then a junior operator’s license at 16 and a half, and a full license at 18. There was some initial support for increasing the minimum driving age to 17.5, but that idea never received close to enough support to pass.

Under the bill, a driver with a learner’s permit would have to spend at least 40 hours driving with a parent or other adult with a driver’s license in the car, up from the current 12 hours in order to obtain a junior operator’s license. If the teenager passes an advanced driver’s education course that teaches defensive driving techniques, that requirement would be cut to 30 hours. Parents must also receive two hours of instruction on the state’s driver education curriculum.

The bill also adds significant penalties for teens that violate the law. One provision takes aim at teens with learner’s permits who speed, punishing them with a 90-day permit suspension and a fine of $50, plus $10 for each mile per hour over the speed limit. Currently, the penalty is only $50. A second offense would result in a one-year permit suspension, plus the fine.

The bill also targets teenagers who drag race, punishing them with a one-year suspension, $250 fine, and $500 fee to reinstate their license or permit. It also imposes 60-day license suspensions for violating night driving restrictions or breaking rules against joyriding with friends within the first six months of licensure.

Under the legislation passed by the Legislature, new penalties are slated to go into effect March 1, 2007, and a revamped and improved driver’s education system is to be in place by Sept. 1, 2007. The registrar of motor vehicles is assigned to implement the details of the new training, parental supervision and penalties of the system.

While I’m pleased that we’ve been able to expand the driver training requirements and increase the penalties for speeding and other infractions, I’m disappointed that a couple of things the Senate fought for were left out of the final bill. Lawmakers dropped a provision requiring drivers under age 18 to travel with a placard on their vehicle that identifies them as new drivers. They also dropped a proposed cell phone ban for teens and eliminated a provision aimed at cracking down on illegal immigrants who are driving without authorization.

One of the things I fought for was a portable placard to be issued to all junior operators. If we’re really committed to addressing this problem, then we need to know who these junior operators are. The police certainly don’t want to be profiling people, and pulling them over just because they look like they might be underage. But if we required junior operators to post a placard in the vehicle they are driving, then it would be easy for the police, and other drivers, to identify them.

We also need to find a way to prevent unlicensed drivers — many of whom aren’t even in this country legally — from registering and driving a car in Massachusetts. I’ve talked with a number of judges and police officers, and they all tell me this is a very serious problem. We really should be requiring that individuals produce a valid driver’s license when they register a car to make sure we’re not allowing dangerous drivers on our roads. I’m disappointed the conference committee decided to drop this item from the final bill. While in my opinion it is not worth further holding this bill up, these are two issues I will continue to fight for in the next legislative session.

I have long believed that strengthening the curriculum for drivers’ education classes is an essential ingredient needed to reduce teen deaths and injuries. In fact, I have filed a bill in consecutive legislative sessions that would require a comprehensive study of the state’s drivers’ education system. Currently, students are being set up to fail with an outdated system in place. With no statewide, uniform curriculum, this is system that is fatally flawed because some programs are much better than others.

I’m pleased the conference committee was able to reach an agreement on the junior operator’s bill before the end of the session. It’s unfortunate that it took a tragedy to provide the impetus for moving forward on this, but hopefully the changes we’re making will save lives.

The Governor now may sign the bill, veto it, or propose amendments. The Governor could also “pocket veto” the bill by not acting on it at all.

Sen. Richard R. Tisei, R-Wakefield, represents Malden, Melrose, Reading, Stoneham and Wakefield.

We also need to find a way to prevent unlicensed drivers — many of whom aren’t even in this country legally — from registering and driving a car in Massachusetts.

State's like MA and PA infuriate me! All an illegal needs to do to get a car registered/tagged in PA is to show up at one of the DMV contracted registration sites (usually a filling station with a mechanic shop) and show proof of residency, such as a utlilty bill, and they can obtain a valid tag. One PA resident had over 300 cars registered in his name!

DE and NJ (both of which require a valid license and proof of insurance to register a vehicle) have been urging PA to place the registration process back in the hands of their DMV's for two years now..to no avail. And why would they, the revenue they are stealing from other states must be staggering.