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Intermediate Licensing - A Change for Washington's Teenage Drivers

24 March 2000

Intermediate Licensing - A Change for Washington's Teenage Drivers

    OLYMPIA, Wash., March 23 Teenagers in Washington will face
new restrictions on their driver's licenses starting in July of 2001. An
intermediate driver's licensing law, also known as graduated licensing, is
scheduled to be signed by Governor Gary Locke at 3:00 Friday in Olympia.
    Restrictions will include a limit on the number and the age of passengers
young drivers can have riding with them. For example, when a 16-year-old gets
a license he or she will not be allowed to have any passengers riding with
them under the age of 20 who are not members of their immediate family for the
first six months. After the first six months, they will be able to have no
more than three passengers with them at any one time who are under the age of
20 who are not members of their immediate family.
    The times that intermediate license holders will be able to drive will
also be restricted. It will be against the law for these new drivers to be on
the road between the hours of 1 a.m. and 5 a.m. unless accompanied by a
parent, legal guardian or a licensed driver who is at least 25 years of age.
    "Giving young drivers more time to practice before they have the
distraction of other teenagers in the car is an important element of this
law," said Washington Traffic Safety Commission Director John Moffat.
    Another new provision is that before the intermediate license is even
issued, 16 to 18 year olds will have to show that they have practiced 50 hours
with a parent or guardian, ten of those hours being at night. This is in
addition to the training they receive in traffic safety education courses.
Teens will also need to hold their learner's permits for at least six months,
as well.
    If there are traffic citations during the intermediate period, the
following procedures will apply:

    -- After the first citation, a warning letter will be sent to the parent
       or guardian
    -- After the second, the intermediate license will be suspended for six
       months or until the driver turns eighteen, whichever comes first
    -- After the third such offense, the license will be suspended until the
       driver's eighteenth birthday.

    The good news for responsible teen drivers is that if for the first twelve
months after issuance of the intermediate license they have not been involved
in a crash and haven't received a traffic ticket, all the restrictions are
lifted and they will receive their full driver's license. Restrictions are
also lifted for those teenagers who need to drive for agricultural purposes.
    From 1993-98, 753 people lost their lives on Washington's roadways as a
result of crashes caused by teen drivers.
    "Statistics for Washington's young drivers tell us that fatal crashes
involving teen drivers are more than double that of other drivers. Similar
laws have been shown to dramatically reduce those numbers in other states. We
hope to see the same thing here," Moffat said.
    34 other states have some form of graduated licensing.