Teens and Driving: Pennsylvania Committee Approves Licensing Restrictions for Teens

PHILADELPHIA--May 5, 2011: The Pennsylvania House Transportation Committee gave its approval on Tuesday to a handful of driver-safety bills. One, HB 9, would enforce stricter driving and licensing restrictions for a high risk auto insurance group: 16- and 17-year-old drivers.

Online Auto Insurance supports legislation that beefs up safety measures for the country's youngest drivers. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 16- to 19-year-old drivers are four times more likely than older drivers to get into an accident, per mile driven.

In order to help address this issue, HB 9 would beef up Pennsylvania's already extensive licensing requirements.

The state currently requires drivers under the age of 18 who are testing for a junior driver's license to have 50 hours of supervised "practical driving experience." The bill would bump up that amount to 65, with at least 10 of those hours being at night and with at least five being in "inclement weather."

The bill would also put restrictions on whom licensed junior motorists could drive with. If the bill is ultimately signed into law, these drivers would not be able to have more than one passenger under the age of 18 with them in the car without parental approval.

Passenger restrictions like the one proposed in the bill have been said to help lower the teen fatal-crash rate. According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, the fatal-crash risk with three or more passengers "is about 3 times higher than when a beginner drives alone."

The bill has a long way to go before becoming law, though. It still needs to be approved by the full House and Senate and then get signed into law by the governor.

To learn more about securing insurance for motorists who pose a higher-than-average risk, readers can go to High Risk Drivers where they will find informative resource pages and a quote-comparison generator that can help jump-start the search for an affordable policy.