BILL ANALYSIS
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 2464|
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 2464
Author: Huffman (D), et al
Amended: 6/28/10 in Senate
Vote: 21
SENATE TRANSPORTATION & HOUSING COMMITTEE : 7-1, 6/15/10
AYES: Lowenthal, Huff, DeSaulnier, Harman, Kehoe, Pavley,
Simitian
NOES: Ashburn
NO VOTE RECORDED: Oropeza
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 64-8, 4/29/10 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT : Instruction permits
SOURCE : Author
DIGEST : This bill requires that drivers under the age of
18 complete driver education and training prior to
obtaining an instruction permit, clarifies the minimum age
of a person that may accompany a permittee, and requires
that the instruction permit state explicitly that a
permittee must complete 50 hours of supervised driving
practice.
ANALYSIS : Existing law prohibits a person from driving a
motor vehicle upon the highway unless he/she holds a valid
driver's license.
For persons under the age of 18, the road to a driver's
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license entails two steps: the instruction permit, which
the permittee must hold for a minimum of six months, and
the provisional driver's license, which is subject to
certain restrictions. Persons 18 years of age or older are
not required to hold an instruction permit and are not
subject to the restrictions of a provisional license prior
to obtaining a driver's license.
In order for the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to
issue an instruction permit, an applicant must meet one of
the following criteria:
1. The person is age 15 years and 6 months or older and has
successfully completed approved courses in driver
education (i.e., classroom instruction) and training
(i.e., behind-the-wheel training).
2. The person is age 15 years and 6 months or older and has
successfully completed driver education and is in the
process of taking driver training. In practice, DMV
will issue a permit after a person has completed driver
education stating that the permit is not valid until the
person has completed at least one class of
behind-the-wheel training.
3. The person is age 15 years and 6 months or older and is
enrolled and participating in an integrated driver
education and training program.
4. The person is over the age of 16 years and is applying
for a restricted Class C license in order to operate
vehicles for the United States or California National
Guard.
5. The person is over the age of 17 years and 6 months,
after which age there is no requirement that a person
complete driver education and training.
In general, an instruction permit is valid for a period of
24 months and entitles the permittee to operate a motor
vehicle, other than a motorcycle, motorized scooter, or a
motorized bicycle. Some restrictions imposed on the
instruction permit, however, vary according to the age of
the permittee.
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Permittees 18 years of age and over must be accompanied by
a person who is 18 years of age or over and who has a valid
California driver's license. Permittees under the age of
18, on the other hand, must hold the instruction permit for
at least 6 months and complete 50 hours of driving
practice, 10 of which must be during the hours of darkness,
supervised by a person who is 25 years of age or older and
who has a valid California driver's license. Additionally,
these permittees may not operate a motor vehicle until
he/she begins taking behind-the-wheel instruction.
This bill:
1. Requires that drivers under the age of 18 complete
driver education and training prior to obtaining an
instruction permit.
2. Makes consistent, at 21, the minimum age requirement of
a person who must accompany a permittee while he/she
drives.
3. Requires that the instruction permit state explicitly
that a permittee must complete 50 hours of supervised
driving practice.
4. Requires a driving school, or independent driving
instructor, provide a driving log that a student may use
to document the 50 hours of supervised driving practice.
Comments
According to the author's office, teenage drivers in
California continue to die, suffer serious injuries, and
cause accidents at a greater rate than any other age group
despite a decade of increasingly stricter requirements for
licensing young drivers. Furthermore, motor vehicle
crashes continue to be the leading cause of death for 15 to
20 year-olds, accounting for 21 percent of California's
traffic fatalities, even though this age group constitutes
less than six percent of California's licensed drivers.
Numerous studies support the conclusion that a substantial
part of the problem lies with a new driver's lack of
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experience. For example, one analysis of police reports of
almost 2,000 crashes in which newly licensed drivers were
involved pointed to inexperience as the major contributor
(McKnight and McKnight, 2003). Research shows that teen
crash rates drop with increased driving experience, whether
measured by miles or months (UC Berkeley Traffic Safety
Center).
California only requires a teenager to complete one day of
behind-the-wheel training before being eligible to start
practice-driving. The author's office contends that in a
typical situation where a six-hour behind-the-wheel course
is divided into three two-hour classes, a student will
spread the required six hours of driver training over
several months, sometimes separating each two-hour class by
two or three months and taking the final two-hour segment
close to the end of the six-month permit period.
The author's office argues that putting a teenager behind
the wheel of a car after only two hours of professional
driving practice is not only unreasonable, it is dangerous.
Furthermore, parents are not professional instructors and
may inadvertently teach their teen poor driving habits.
Other parents may be fearful or have little patience to
teach their teens how to operate a vehicle, while some may
not have the time. Finally, when teens practice with
parents for extended periods of time and then return to the
driving school to complete behind-the-wheel instruction,
instructors find themselves spending considerable time
trying to reverse the bad driving habits taught to them by
their parents.
The author's office argues that if the full six hours of
professional driver training were required before DMV
issued an instruction permit, teens would have the
instruction they need to handle a car properly and
understand their responsibilities as drivers, tools which
would be reinforced while practicing. Parents may also
feel safer practicing with their teens, leading to more
experience behind the wheel. If teens are properly trained
before they start practice-driving, accident and death
rates will inevitably decline.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: No
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Local: No
SUPPORT : (Verified 6/29/10)
American Nurses Association, California
California Chapter of the American College of Emergency
Physicians
California Fire Chiefs Association
California State Sheriffs' Association
Driving School Association of California, Inc.
Fire Districts Association of California
ASSEMBLY FLOOR :
AYES: Adams, Ammiano, Anderson, Arambula, Beall, Bill
Berryhill, Tom Berryhill, Blakeslee, Block, Blumenfield,
Bradford, Brownley, Buchanan, Carter, Chesbro, Cook,
Coto, Davis, De La Torre, De Leon, Emmerson, Eng, Evans,
Feuer, Fletcher, Fong, Fuentes, Fuller, Furutani, Gaines,
Galgiani, Garrick, Gilmore, Hall, Harkey, Hayashi,
Hernandez, Hill, Huber, Huffman, Jeffries, Lieu, Ma,
Mendoza, Miller, Monning, Nava, Nestande, Niello,
Nielsen, V. Manuel Perez, Portantino, Ruskin, Salas,
Saldana, Silva, Skinner, Solorio, Swanson, Torlakson,
Torres, Tran, Yamada, John A. Perez
NOES: Conway, DeVore, Hagman, Knight, Logue, Norby, Smyth,
Audra Strickland
NO VOTE RECORDED: Bass, Caballero, Charles Calderon,
Jones, Bonnie Lowenthal, Torrico, Villines, Vacancy
JJA:do 7/21/10 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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