By Sarah Green
KHI News Service
TOPEKA, Feb. 15 — Kansas has a system in place to educate young drivers, but officials say it’s not enough.
The House and Senate Transportation committees on Thursday held hearings on bills to replace the current young drivers’ licensing system with one that has more parental supervision and is contingent on safe driving for the first 18 months. The minimum age of all drivers, except for those who use a farm permit, would change from 14 to 15.
“It’s not that different from what we have now, but it’s different enough that it will make a big, big difference,” said Jim Hanni, spokesman for the Kansas region of the AAA and a member of The Driving Force, a citizen task force charged with finding initiatives to reduce fatalities. Enacting a graduated drivers license system such as those in HB 2400 and SB 294 was among the task force’s top recommendations to legislators.
Kansas drivers age 15 to 18 account for almost 7 percent of all registered drivers, but they are responsible for about 20 percent of all crashes, said Dr. Howard Rodenberg, state health officer.
Robert Foss, the director of the Center for the Study of Young Drivers at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, said the statistics shouldn’t surprise anyone.
It’s not willful disobedience, or alcohol, or recklessness that causes most of the accidents involving very young drivers, he said. They simply haven’t had enough practice behind the wheel.
Graduated drivers licensing systems help young drivers get the experience they need, with adult supervision, during the time when they need it most. Other restrictions on the number of passengers, wireless devices and driving at night are all designed to help start good behaviors that should last beyond high school.
“This isn’t a law in the sense that most people would think,” Foss said. “This isn’t dictating what one’s behavior should be, but establishes a system for the things we think are important.”
Kansas is one of five states with no restrictions on the number of passengers or night-time driving for young drivers. The graduated drivers licensing legislation has been endorsed by many safety advocacy groups and others including the Kansas Farm Bureau.
Sen. Les Donovan, R-Wichita, chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee, said a similar bill had been discussed but not approved when it was tied to the booster seat legislation enacted last year. He said that he expects the bill to move out of his committee and probably out of the Senate.
“It just depends on what happens in the House,” he said.
House Transportation Committee Chairman Gary Hayzlett, R-Lakin, wasn’t sure his committee would have time to consider the bill on graduated licenses next week. Among concerns raised in Thursday’s committee hearing were those from Rep. Julie Menghini, D-Pittsburg, about the cost of private drivers education courses. Under the proposed legislation, drivers education would be required for anyone under 18 to obtain a license.
A private driver instruction course in Pittsburg, for instance, costs $400, Menghini said. If class space is limited, some parents and their children may have no other choice.
In other news:
The Senate Transportation Committee conducted a hearing on SB 211 on Thursday. The bill would extend the state’s primary seat belt law to age 17 — meaning all children 17 and under must be restrained in cars at all times. Law enforcement officers may stop drivers and issue tickets if they spot unrestrained children in vehicles, which they are not allowed to do under the state’s secondary law.
The senate committee will probably not hear a similar bill — SB 223 — which would enact a primary seat belt law for all drivers and passengers instead of only children. Sen. Les Donovan, the committee’s chairman, said he waited to see what the House would do with its legislation, HB 2136.
But the committee isn’t likely to take any action on the bill this session.
“If I thought it would pass out of the committee, I’d do it in a second,” Donovan said.
Rep. Hayzlett said on Thursday that he still intended to discuss an alternate version of HB 2136 next week.
One change he discussed after the committee hearing on the bill would be to include all children up to age 17 in a primary seat belt law — similar to the Senate Bill. Another option is keeping the current secondary law — where officers can not ticket drivers for seat belt offenses unless stopped for another violation — but raising fines from $10 to a higher amount.
“We’ll probably work the seat belt law if we can all get on the same page,” Hayzlett said.
Sarah Green is a staff writer for KHI News Service, which specializes in coverage of health issues facing Kansans. She can be reached at
sgreen@khi.org
or at 785-233-5443, ext. 118.