Joshua's Law

Blessing or Burden?

My friend Deirdre grew up in New York City. She enjoyed walking to the store, the theater and the pharmacy. A combination of public transportation and taxi cabs were available to take her anywhere else she wanted to go. After 9/11, Deirdre moved her family to rural New York and discovered a need for something she'd never thought about much – a driver's license.

In the city, a person can live a full and vibrant life without ever getting behind the wheel of a car. In rural America, driving is a necessity. Without a driver's license, most young people will not obtain employment or have a way to attend post-secondary education. The need for a license is heightened for kids whose families are not well-off. In this area and in particularly during this economic crisis, there are teens who must work in order to have things they need. With a graduation rate around 75% and the US teen pregnancy rate rising, we also have a number of teens who need to drive to work to support themselves or their children. Yet these are exactly the kids who are impeded from obtaining a driver's license.

Georgia law prevents teenagers from driving unless they jump through all the right hoops. First, they must prove they are still in school. In the past, kids who needed to drop out of school to work full time were not denied a license. In fact, teens in extraordinary circumstances could request a “hardship license” before age 16. Now we tell them “no school, no license.” If a licensed driver drops out of high school or has unexcused absences, her license will be suspended within ten days. Every Georgia teen needs an education – but could we not do better by helping rather than penalizing kids in crisis?

In 2007, new restrictions were enacted under the name Joshua's Law. Joshua Brown's father lobbied for the law after his son died in a hydroplaning accident soon after his 16th birthday. Rather than blaming road conditions or lack of driving experience, his father decided that it must have happened because he was sixteen. They set up a foundation and pushed the Georgia legislature to pass a new law, stating that sixteen-year-olds cannot get a license without taking classes. Seventeen-year-olds can get a license without the class.

These Joshua's Law classes are often one-room operations where some person takes your kids along while running her errands, and otherwise has them sitting at a table reading a book or watching a video – a privilege for which you will pay approximately $400. A $90 online option exists, but does not fulfill all requirements.

As a matter of fact, the $400 classes are also incomplete, though they may tell you otherwise at the outset. Your teen driver still cannot get a license without an Alcohol and Drug Awareness (ADAP) card, which is available only through state-sponsored programs at distant locations or through the health class at public schools. Also required for aspiring 16-year-old drivers are a 366-day-old learner's permit, a school attendance form, and a parent with a license.

Joshua's Law impedes young drivers – especially the aforementioned teens in crisis. Teen parents and poor families often cannot afford $400 and a week of time spent at one of these places. If the state wants teen drivers to have this class, why not offer it through the state? In fact, Joshua's Law stipulates that a 5 percent levy on traffic violations (totaling $10 million per year) will make driver's education available to every Georgia teen. How is the course available to “every teen” when only a handful of private companies are approved to administer it and the cost is prohibitive for many families? Where is the levy money, and why is it not being used for the teens?

Another problem with Joshua's Law is that it targets the wrong offenders. People do not wreck because they are a certain age. They wreck because of carelessness, distraction, or plain old bad luck. Sometimes they wreck because they're not as experienced at dealing with other drivers' mistakes. Often they wreck because of drugs and alcohol. According to the Department of Transportation, nearly 30% of teen driver fatalities register a blood alcohol level at the time of death.

The Georgia legislature addresses the DUI problem with ridiculously lax solutions. DUI only becomes a felony on the 4th conviction. The felony law was only enacted last session. We need tougher penalties and better treatment programs for impaired drivers of all ages.

The solution to safer streets is not to put all the teenagers in the back seat. Oh, it is true that certain people are statistically more likely to wreck than others – teenagers among them. Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death among teens, since teenagers rarely die from heart disease or cancer.

But does age discrimination weed out the most dangerous drivers? Not when you consider other factors, such as gender. Young men are twice as likely as young women to die in traffic fatalities. According to insurance companies, this discrepancy does not even out until sometime in the late twenties. Should we have different driving ages for the sexes? Or should marriage be a driving requirement for men, since single males are statistically the worst drivers?

The very idea of discriminating against males at the Department of Driver Services is appalling. But when we discriminate against female teens because of the bad driving of male teens, how is that any better?

Georgia should dump the age discrimination and apply equal treatment across the board. If driver's education is a wonderful thing for 16-year-olds, then let's require it for everyone seeking a license. Too many kids, daunted by Joshua's Law and its predecessors, simply wait until they are older and the requirements ease off. The result is a horde of 18-year-olds who drive just as badly as yesterday's 16-year-olds.