Arkansas' New Teenage Law

Does anyone find the new law in Arkansas that does not allow more than two teenagers (17 and under)--unless related--in a vehicle at a time a little ridiculous? Anyone else have a similar law?

Whats the legal driving age in AR? If its 16, then yes.

That is stupidity at it's finest!

So let's say you have six 16 year olds going to a high school party. Instead of one 16 year old driving all of them they prefer to have three 16 year olds driving instead?

IMO the less 16 year old drivers on the road the better. I'm glad I don't live in Arkansas!

Yes, 16 is the current age and yes, Richard, you are correct.

I see some SCOTUS in the future on that.

Sounds reasonable to me.

(Message edited by swass on February 10, 2010)

Up here we have graduated liscensing meaning when you first get your drivers liscense your only allowed to have one other person in the car with you. You have to have that liscense for 2 years or something then you take a final drivers test where you have no restrictions.

Same thing as NC. Only one person in the car if you're not related for like 6 months. And you can't drive after 9 PM or before 5 AM either I believe. Been a while since I've had to worry about that lol.

California will not allow you to take a buddy to school for the first 12 months. I sure am glad this stuff was not enacted when I was 16. Then again I worked on the family farm and was legally driving trucks carrying 8+ ton loads on the road long before I ever got my drivers license. When I turned 16 I started driving the bigger tandem axle trucks carry 20 tons. The town police always just waved at me as they knew me in a good way, small town.

Obtain a Provisional Driver’s License

The new photo license you receive in the mail is your provisional license. It’s called “provisional” because there are temporary restrictions that apply to you as a newly licensed driver. Once you turn 18, the provisional aspect of your license goes away.

For the first 12 months you cannot:

* Allow passengers younger than 20 to ride in the car.

* Drive between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m.

In order to do either, the state requires you to have a licensed parent/guardian (or another licensed driver age 25 or older) or a licensed/certified driving instructor in the car with you.

yep same as NC. I remember how annoying the no after 9, 1 passenger only rule was when I was 16 but its not a terrible idea. (I think it should be no after 11PM but whatever). They are just trying to prevent 8 people piled in a car going to off campus lunch or going to parties, which from my experiences is a good idea.

Very similar law here in Washington as well. Enacted 2 years after I got my drivers license.

There is something similar in TX. I think there is a law that any driver under 21 can't use a cell phone while driving or something similar too. There is also a law no cell phone usage in a school zone at all.

Unfortunately all these laws are in response to idiot behavior by the masses.

Those laws are great ideas, nothing worse than a car load of idiot teenagers....

CA is the same if not worse, went into action the same year i got my license a few years back. Somehow my mom found out i drove friends around the first day I got my license haha.

I think these kind of laws are great ideas, teenagers/new drivers get distracted WAY too easily.

Wisco has a thing like that for the first 9 months after a 16 year old gets their license, called GDL.

Its like 1 other people who is young in the car, unless family or over 25 (i think). If you get pulled over with like 4 other kids who are all young then they add to your GDL.

I think its fine, I delt with it and honestly kids are F***ing stupid... and it kept kids from packing 10 kids into a civic because only 1 could drive.

Its legit to me

Welcome to Arkansas. They are putting all sorts of restrictions on the driver's in our states. One of our representatives said in an interview that he voted for it, but his own son who is 16 carpools to high school with 3 other friends. Astounding.

Now we need some laws to help with the clueless elderly drivers in Bezerkeley that keep running into me. I'll take teens over them any day. I mean for driving, of course.

After 60 you should have to take a road test every 5 years

For all of you who oppose this, does it matter that kids now load up in the trunk to avoid detection? How safe is that? Surprisingly, my research indicates the opposite being true. The only fatalities I know of--locally--that involved a teenage driver, the driver was either alone or just had one passenger.

nick i agree that after a certain age you should have to take a test yearly. i am in sales and drive all day long, you cannot believe the elderly that cant walk that are driving all over creation.

The reasons that laws like this are put into place are becasue statistically teens are the most easily distracted drivers. It's almost 100% that no amount of practice or drivers education can take the place of real on the road experience which they don't have yet. There are enough distractions such as radios, ipods and cell phones in the car already without 2-3 extra 16-17 year olds in there as well.

Anyone who says 6 teenagers in the car together is better has obviously never seen 6 teenagers in the car together. I guess the question is why do so many kids need to be in the car together and where are they going that's so important?

My neighbors 3 doors down lost their 17 year old daugheter 4 years ago when a friend from the back seat tossed a cell phone that evidently went on the floor in front of her (the driver) and she instinctly bent down to pick it up. Long story short, their daughter is gone forever.

Here's a link that happened about a mile from my sisters house about 5 years ago as I was helping her to move in. There is a picture and this link up on that corner to this day. I didn't know anyone personally but put yourself in the parents position and then ask yourself how "silly" those types of laws are.

http://ashleyscorner.net/(Message edited by iridelow1998 on February 11, 2010)

(Message edited by iridelow1998 on February 11, 2010)

same as Texas

this has been a law in ohio for about 5 years now

True enough, Dirt Dog, and I have kids of my own and mourn anyone's loss, but by limiting the number of teenagers in a car would not have prevented the accident. I grew up taking many trips to ball games, to the state fair with friends, and many other places, with sometimes as many as 7 in the car, and I was always more careful as a driver with six in the car than when I drove by myself or with just a friend. Now kids are locking themselves in a trunk. What happens if a car flips in a ditch with water in it? What are the chances of survivors?

It's a statistics game. I'm in Cali and my son turns 16 in April. I agree with the no driving after 11, but I'm not sure having a bunch of kids in one car is any better than having those kids in their own car racing each other to the same place.

We have an old suburban that he was going to drive, but we figured that's just far too tempting to load up with friends. We ended up finding an old small pickup, with just one other seat (for the brother). As a parent I just hope he's not as stupid as I was.....and if he is, I hope he is also as lucky as I.

Parental education will always come into play. As parents we must tell our kids the same things we are saying on here. My kid will be 14 in a couple of months and I'm definitely telling him all of these things. I'd never heard the trunk thing but you can be sure he's going to hear about that and the dangers that come along with it now. We all did stupid things as kids and there's no guarantee that our kids will make it through but I know that I'm going to arm my kids with as much knowledge as possible about what's going on out here in the world. Some kids are definitely responsible but that age group as a whole is probably not. Just educate your kids with the do's and dont's and hope, pray or whatever you do that they will make smart decisions when you're not around.