Graduated licensing aims to reduce the risk that teens in Boston, Fenway, North End, South End, Allston, Beacon Hill, Mission Hill, Jamaica Plain, Roxbury and surrounding areas will become involved in an auto accident after they receive a driver's license. In Massachusetts program has three stages, and parental consent is required for teens under 18 who get their license. Massachusetts, teens must get a learner's permit for at least six months and must complete 12 hours of supervised driving time. The rules are designed to slowly introduce teens into the world of driving to reduce the risk of accidents.
A personal injury lawyer knows that motor vehicle collisions remain one of the leading causes of fatalities among young people and that young people who first get their licenses are at the greatest risk of becoming involved in a motor vehicle accident. A graduated license program aims to gradually introduce teens into the world of driving so that they are less likely to get involved in an accident.
Recently, the National Safety Council (NSC) worked with a panel of experts and reviewed extensive research on the subject of graduated licensing to create a suggested ideal framework for GDL systems. This framework has been published to provide a guide that can be used internationally to help improve graduated licensing systems and reduce collision risks of new drivers.
Suggested Protocols for Graduated Licensing
The National Safety Council has indicated that it believes every new driver should go through a graduated licensing phase, but that the protocols for teen drivers should be the strictest.
According to the NSC's suggested framework for GDLs, a teen would be permitted to get a learner's permit at age 16 or older. To obtain a permit, the teen driver would be required to take a test. The test would include information on graduated licensing, among other useful information that a new driver needs to know.
A teen with a learner's permit would then be within the learner phase of the graduated licensing process. In this phase, at least 50 hours of supervised driving time would be required. Log books should be kept in order to ensure that the minimum number of hours of driving time is occurring. While in the learner's phase, a teen driver would be subject to zero tolerance rules related to driving impaired and the consumption of alcohol. The teen driver would need to wear a seat belt at all times and would not be allowed to use a cell phone or other electronic device. To make it easier for law enforcement to identify and monitor new drivers, the teen would be required to put decals on the car alerting people as to his or her learner status.
At the end of the learner phase, a teen could take a test to cross into the intermediate phase once he or she is at least 17 years old. The intermediate phase no longer requires supervised driving. However, the teen would not be allowed to drive at night, which is defined as somewhere between 9:00 and 10:00 pm and the hours of 5:00 am the next morning. A young person in the intermediate phase would also not be allowed to have more than one teen passenger in the car while he or she was driving.
The completion of the intermediate phase could take place at age 18 or older. A road test or computer-based exam would be required in order for the driver to graduate from an intermediate to an unrestricted license.
Boston accident victims may contact the Law Offices of Mark E. Salomone at 1-800-WIN-WIN-1 or can visit https://www.marksalomone.com. Serving Boston, Back Bay, Fenway, North End, South End, Allston, Beacon Hill, Mission Hill, Jamaica Plain, Roxbury and surrounding areas.