by fiddler
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) is taking aim at the single biggest killer of teenagers — car crashes. For the second year she’s sponsoring a bill to require all states to make 18 the minimum age for an unrestricted driver’s license. At this point only a few states and DC keep teen drivers from unrestricted licenses until age 18; the others are divided between 16 and 17-1/2. States that let a driver have an unrestricted license at 18, according to the Governors Highway Safety Association, include Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, Missouri, New Jersey and Virginia. Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts and Ohio requires drivers to be 18 to drive at night. The article above, from Congress.org, said 12 states plus DC, which means they’re including Pennsylvania. In Pennsylvania, when young drivers turns 18 their licenses automatically become unrestricted; otherwise, restrictions are removed after a year of driving without a crash or conviction if the driver has completed a driver’s education course.
There are good statistical, practical reasons for this change. ‘Motor Vehicle Traffic’ accounts for 39.98 percent of fatalities for people age 16-19, according to the National Center for Health Statistics.