Bill asks for more driver training

Teenagers would spend many more hours in drivers' education but would later retain the right to chauffeur younger siblings under a compromise bill on teen driving passed handily by the House yesterday.

The bill, designed to tighten regulations following several fatal accidents involving high-schoolers, would double the minimum requirements for behind-the-wheel training and more than triple the number of hours prospective drivers have to spend driving under adult supervision.

``The long and short of today's action is that I think we move forward in substantial fashion, a measure that will have this Commonwealth licensing drivers who will have a great deal more experience than those drivers being licensed today," said House Transportation Committee chairman Joseph F. Wagner .

The bill passed 140 to 5 and now goes to the Senate, where leaders have expressed support for overhauling teen driving laws.

Under the bill, prospective drivers would see the minimum requirements for behind-the-wheel training increase from six to 12 hours and the number of hours they have to spend driving under the supervision of a licensed adult increase from 12 to 40 hours. If a teenager completes a defensive-driving course, the requirement would drop to 30 hours of supervised driving.

The bill also seeks to involve parents far more in their children's driving lessons. Parents would, for instance, have to participate in at least two of the 30 hours of required classroom training.

The legislation would toughen penalties for drivers who have earned a junior operator's license, especially when it comes to speeding and drag-racing. A teenage driver's first speeding offense currently carries a modest fine. If the bill becomes law, first offenders would get a 90-day license suspension. Second offenders would lose their license for a year.

House lawmakers rejected a central aspect of the bill that Wagner and others had sought: A provision that would have prohibited anyone with a junior operator's license from driving around brothers and sisters unless another licensed driver 21 or older was in the car.

Opponents argued successfully that such a measure would inconvenience families who rely on their driving-age children to ferry younger siblings around.

``Many, many families rely on the junior operator to take younger siblings to and from school," said state Representative Alice H. Peisch, a Wellesley Democrat whose amendment to kill the sibling restriction won 100 to 46.

Over Wagner's objections, Peisch and several fellow lawmakers were able to persuade their colleagues to leave the decision about teenagers driving younger siblings around to parents.

``There comes a point where we can't legislate common sense," said Representative Barbara A. L'Italien, an Andover Democrat.

But state Representative Ruth B. Balser, a Democrat from Newton, disputed the argument that keeping siblings out of the car would place too great a burden on families.

``The greatest burden on a family is the death of a child," she said, imploring the House to keep the provision in the bill.

The push for tougher driving requirements for teenagers stems in large part from a spate of fatal accidents involving high schoolers. Teenage sisters Shauna and Meghan Murphy of Southborough were killed last October when their car hit a tree. In March, Amanda Nadeau and Scott Connolly, two 16-year-olds from Reading, died on Route 128 in Wakefield, followed days later by a crash killing two Hopkinton siblings, Andrea, 17, and Joshua Goncalves, 10.

Lawmakers initially threatened to raise the minimum driving age from 16 1/2 to 17 1/2, but abandoned those plans after widespread opposition surfaced in the Legislature and from many vocal teenagers who expressed outrage.

What emerged instead is a bill that focuses on improving the training teenagers receive before getting behind the wheel and on ratcheting up penalties for teenagers who violate the driving laws.

Governor Mitt Romney told reporters prior to the bill's passage yesterday that he had not yet seen the legislation and could not comment. His communications director, Eric Fehrnstrom, said last night, ``Generally speaking we have been advocates for more parental involvement and for increased education."

Another provision of the bill calls for the Registry of Motor Vehicles to develop a standardized driver's education curriculum and have regulatory authority over all such programs in the Commonwealth.

``It's a strong message that we needed to send to our kids that we do mean business," said state Representative Bradford Hill, an Ipswich Republican.

Scott Helman can be reached at shelman@globe.com.