North Dakota lawmakers strongly support toughening state laws that govern teenage drivers, and many favor raising the state’s 14-year-old minimum driving age, an Associated Press survey shows.
Insurance Commissioner Adam Hamm, state Rep. Ed Gruchalla, D-Fargo, and a group that includes Fargo pediatrician Ron Miller and officials from North Dakota State University’s Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute have been working on legislation to restrict what young people may do behind the wheel.
Their legislation is likely to include a ban on late-night driving and on cell phone and text-messaging by teenage drivers, and restrictions on the number and age of passengers a young driver may transport, participants in the talks say.
Hamm and Gruchalla, who is a former North Dakota highway patrolman, hope a consensus proposal will have a better chance in the North Dakota Legislature, which began its regular session on Jan. 6.
“We all firmly believe that a graduated driver’s license concept is a good idea for North Dakota,” Hamm said. “It would move us much closer, in terms of regulating youth driving, to where the rest of the country is.”
In the pre-session AP survey, 29 of the 38 state senators who responded favored the cell-phone ban and driving curfew for 14- and 15-year-old drivers. Among House members, 53 of 80 representatives supported the curfew and cell-phone restrictions.
On the question about the minimum driving age, 21 senators said they favored keeping it at 14, while 14 senators favored raising it to 15 or 16. Among the 80 House members who replied, 33 supported the 14-year-old minimum age, while 40 backed raising it to 15 or 16.
The Legislature has 47 senators and 94 representatives.
North Dakota law now allows 14-year-olds to drive with an instructional permit when accompanied by an adult. The state last year reported that drivers 17 years old and younger accounted for 21 percent of the state’s fatal crashes and 26 percent of accidents.
Hamm and Gruchalla said legislation will include a farm and ranch exemption that will allow 14- and 15-year-olds to drive unaccompanied while doing agricultural work.
Topics Legislation Personal Auto
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