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Morning News

Georgia Imposes Tighter Restrictions On Teenage Drivers

Aired February 5, 2001 - 11:20 a.m. ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Across the country, officials, you know, are taking a second look when teenagers should be given a license to allow them to drive, and how long the leash should be when they do get behind the wheel.

Recent deaths of dozens of young drivers has one particular state looking at some much tighter restrictions.

Here is CNN's Gary Tuchman with more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): If you drive an '87 Ford, your car may be older than the driver in the lane next to you. In most states, you only need to be 14 or 15 to have a learners permit.

Fifteen-year-old Claire Boozer of Atlanta just got hers.

CLAIRE BOOZER, NEW DRIVER: I think I'm ready to learn to drive. I'm not -- I'm not prepared yet to drive on my own. I'm prepared to -- I mean, I'm willing to learn, you know.

TUCHMAN: And she will be learning in a state that may soon drastically restrict her driving privileges.

GOV. ROY BARNES, GEORGIA: We believe all of this is necessary because of the great number of deaths we've had. We've had over 200 deaths, really, in less than two years.

TUCHMAN: Georgia's governor is leading a push to further limit when anyone under 18 could drive without an adult, and reduce the number of passengers in the car who are under 18.

BARNES: We have a very week graduated license system. This would give us one of the toughest in the nation. This is what we need.

TUCHMAN: In addition, new drivers would have to wait until age 17 to drive by themselves any time of the day in the metropolitan Atlanta area, something that has long been done in New York City, where drivers must be 18.

Claire Boozer's opinion on all this? BOOZER: I think the law right now is perfectly fine.

TUCHMAN: But tightening driving laws appears to be the wave of the future because of young drivers' accident statistics. Right now, in the U.S., only nine states don't have some type of graduated licensing laws. And that number is expected to continue to shrink.

ALLAN WILLIAMS, INS. INST. FOR HIGHWAY SAFETY: They have three times the crash risk of older teenagers, 18- and 19-year-olds, and about 10 times the crash risk of drivers who are in their 20s and 30s.

TUCHMAN: Critics say these laws make life inconvenient for parents and their teens.

The Georgia governor says he'll argue that point.

BARNES: Listen, when it's a choice between inconvenience or whether I'm going to have a child of mine with me the rest of my life, I'll take the inconvenience anytime.

TUCHMAN: Gary Tuchman, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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