Enforcing New Teen Driving Law Could Be Challenge

I can't even believe what I'm reading here: Police seizing driver's licenses on the spot (without any due process), Stickers on cars to label teen drivers... why don't they just make the poor teens wear a Star of David on their shoulders like the Nazis did???

It is not an easy law to enforce. There is an element to enforcing the laws which is a potential for violating ones constitutional rights. But how do they identify teen drivers?
Glastonbury Police are not going to be able to enforce these new laws no better than they enforce the current traffic laws.
Just this past week I took a walk from Glastonbury High School down to the Main street center. On the walk I notice here were cars parked all over fire lanes blocking the dveway during a lacrosse match. There were cars speeding on Hubbard and main stree ( Right by the police department on main) Cars ignoring the pedestrian crossings, stop sign violations and blatant red light violations. This all occurred on a 2 mile walk.
I the police cannot enforce the current laws how are they going to enforce the new teenage laws?

"Parent Training Requirements
Under the new law, a parent or legal guardian of a teen who obtains a learner's permit on or
after August 1, 2008, is required to complete two hours of instruction concerning the laws
governing drivers under age 18 and the dangers of teen driving. This course may be offered by a
commercial or secondary driving school and will be included in the eight-hour program already
required for all 16 and 17-year-olds."

Why should the state mandate that parents waster their hard earned money on attending classes? The parents presumable already have a driver's license, so why force them to take a course. This was clearly something that the driving school lobbyists were able to squeeze into this entirely senseless bill.

In France, 18 is the minimum age for driving and new drivers must drive with a red letter "A" on the back of their car.
They have curfews and different speed limits. What's the problem with that?

Of course the police wil "target" (by that, I mean enforce the law) them if they violate the law.
Here,
cop cars have cameras so the innocent have nothing to worry about.
Diving is a privilege and the state should, no, is required to make and enforce laws for the public good- not the public convenience.

This is Ridiculous wrote:

"Parent Training Requirements
Under the new law, a parent or legal guardian of a teen who obtains a learner's permit on or
after August 1, 2008, is required to complete two hours of instruction concerning the laws
governing drivers under age 18 and the dangers of teen driving. This course may be offered by a
commercial or secondary driving school and will be included in the eight-hour program already
required for all 16 and 17-year-olds."
Why should the state mandate that parents waster their hard earned money on attending classes? The parents presumable already have a driver's license, so why force them to take a course. This was clearly something that the driving school lobbyists were able to squeeze into this entirely senseless bill.

Obviously you're missing the point. Making parents attend driving classes is to educate them on the laws regarding teen driving. It appears that many of them don't know the laws. They allow their young teens to drive at all hours of the night, have illegal passengers in the car, drive high performance cars.....but of course everyone wants to put the onus of enforcing the laws strictly on the police.

And what's wrong with taking a couple of hours or training? From what I see on the road a lot of people could use it.

The parents have a lot of the responsibility to make sure their teens drive safely and comply with the law. Kids should be taught at home that if they don't obey the laws then they won't drive.

Nazi State wrote:

I can't even believe what I'm reading here: Police seizing driver's licenses on the spot (without any due process), Stickers on cars to label teen drivers... why don't they just make the poor teens wear a Star of David on their shoulders like the Nazis did???

Here's a deep thinker, equating teen driving regs with the killing of 10 million people in WWII.

Gee, what a reasonable and thoughful guy.

And just what's wrong with requiring a car driven by a new teen driver to have a sticker on it?

I'm, and probably a lot of other people are too, sick of people complaining about the possibility of profiling every time they don't agree with a law. Like the open alcohol containers in vehicles law. Some people didn't want that passed because they were afraid the police would target minorities. So it's ok to drive around with an open container of alcohol, drinking as you drive and getting drunk. How ridiculous.

I say put a sticker on the teen driver's car. It will aid the police and also the other drivers on the road. You'll know to stay as far away as possible from that car.

Until parents become more proactive and teach their childred that driving is a huge repsonsibility and not to be taken lightly the problem of teen drivers will persist. From all the teen accidents lately it seems that parents don't do this.

I enforced the existing teen driving laws with my 2 sons and am 100% in favor of having some restrictions on young drivers. But I have to say that I am not looking forward to August when I will have to tell my 17 year old, who will be a high school graduate and begin commuting to UConn in West Hartford, that he has to be home by 11:00 every night until he turns 18 in September. At 16 this is reasonable, but for a college student????

the problem is really speed. teens driving too fast.

put governors on the cars they are allowed to drive so they can't go over 50mph. this is something every parent should WANT to do for their child. even better would be if it were made the LAW.

problem solved, mostly, and a lot more easily than telling them who they can transport during what hours, with the police not really able to enforce it.

the new law is bass-ackwards. it doesn't really deal with the problem - the excessive speed capability that teens don't need, shouldn't have, and kills them when they abuse it.

What good is driving a 4 passenger car if you can only put one person in it? The passenger restrictions are sort of ridiculous in that sense.

I'm generally a fan on laws that recognize that driving a vehicle is equivalent to handling a very indiscriminate firearm, but this restriction will put more cars on the road. If I'm out walking or biking, I'd rather be passed by one car full of four teenagers than four cars racing each other.

butane wrote:

<quoted text>
Then I suppose we should also have stickers for senior citizens as well, since they are the ones who always forget which pedal is the brake and end up crashing through store fronts.
And while you're at it, let's put a sticker on every car carrying a Jew, Muslim (to fight terrorism), Blacks, Hispanics, Asians (they can't drive), Mexicans (illegal or not?), Germans, Italians, Latvians, and people from Mongolia.

Here we go again. This bill is about a phasing in of teens into the greter driving community. It is not about civil rights.

Once again, we get the Nazis/Jews etc. arguments ... if that's how deep you have to dig to find an argument, then please stick to blasting Hillary or McCain, a place more suitable for such vitriol.

All of these comments forget the agony the parents are going through because of the horrendous number of teen deaths in CT during this past year.Tell them these laws are inconvenient.I praise Governor Rell and I hope the law enforcement officers enforce them to the hilt!!!!!

"sometimes drive them home"

Why are police providing a "taxi" service? Put them in a cell and call their parents or a relative.

Profiling teens, are teens now a nationalitity or religious sect.

Extra work for local police and state troopers......M'mmm....which extra work would these officers of the law rather do. Enforce ALL laws or investigate accidents involving teem drivers.

Seems everyone can provide reasons not too do something but no one can see beyond the end of their nose. The new laws and regulations are meant to save lives. Seems everyone is over looking this fact.

Jane wrote:

<quoted text>
Obviously you're missing the point. Making parents attend driving classes is to educate them on the laws regarding teen driving. It appears that many of them don't know the laws. They allow their young teens to drive at all hours of the night, have illegal passengers in the car, drive high performance cars.....but of course everyone wants to put the onus of enforcing the laws strictly on the police.
And what's wrong with taking a couple of hours or training? From what I see on the road a lot of people could use it.
The parents have a lot of the responsibility to make sure their teens drive safely and comply with the law. Kids should be taught at home that if they don't obey the laws then they won't drive.

I believe you are the one missing the point.
You see, a simple printed digest of the pertinent laws with parental signature requirement would satisfy the "knowledge" requirement of this debacle. Any parent would then be legally considered notified. Whether they actually care about their kids' actions is an alltogether different matter and neither approach will influence that.

The mandatory 2 hours and the doubling of behind the wheel time will do nothing but pad the wallets of the pigs whose lobby got this crap passed. Your naive belief that this is a good thing is how the greedy get to run your legislature while you keep applauding.

Penalties and restrictions should get adjusted when appropriate (within reason). This mess, however, goes over the top and feeds the pigs way too much.

It's time to check the pockets of those legislators who pushed this. I suspect I know whose money they took.

These are very sensible laws. Kudos to the Gov. & the legislature for doing something constructive here. I'm sure cops know how to handle these situations, even if some "profiling" is taking place. Remember, driving is not a right, it's a priviledge. Erratic driving will give the cops reasonable suspicion to pull illegal teen drivers over. This is a win/win for everybody.

I can't even remember the last time I saw someone pulled over for speeding or for a driving infraction.

Teens out past curfew are the last thing I want our chronically missing police worrying about.

How about enforcing speed limits and traffic laws?

What about the lunatics doing 80 MPH+ on our highways and weaving in and out of traffic?

What about the morons who tailgate our turn without any kind of warning, like using their blinkers?

The police have already conceded to bad drivers. These new teen laws are a joke. They can legislate whatever they want, but it's all fiction.

People in this thread arguing about the law's fairness are missing the point.

We don't even have police stopping speeders...

Winky Dink wrote:

<quoted text>
Here's a deep thinker, equating teen driving regs with the killing of 10 million people in WWII.
Gee, what a reasonable and thoughful guy.

No, his point was that it is discriminatory. No one is equating genecide with teen drivers.

butane wrote:

<quoted text>
Then I suppose we should also have stickers for senior citizens as well, since they are the ones who always forget which pedal is the brake and end up crashing through store fronts.
And while you're at it, let's put a sticker on every car carrying a Jew, Muslim (to fight terrorism), Blacks, Hispanics, Asians (they can't drive), Mexicans (illegal or not?), Germans, Italians, Latvians, and people from Mongolia.

And put a sticker on cars of people who like the Olsen twins, the Osmonds, and Orville Redenbacker popcorn.

The gov. passes these laws becasue it doesn't affect them. when they were teens they could do whatever they wanted.

Why would they put stickers on cars for teens. Not every person in ct is rich and had their parents buy them a fast new car. I s=have to borrow my parents cars. I seriously doubt my parents are going to want to drive around with their cars having a a new teen driver sticker on it.

The passenger rule has always been tedious and it won't ever be enforced. I don't know anyone who has gotten stopped. It's ridiculous that a friend can't drive me home from a school concert or from the movies.

The reason why they have these laws is to stop the speeding and drunk drivers. It's to save live. maybe people should get the driving restrictions if they have been pulled over for speeding. Then they should have their license taken away for dui. There's no reason to punish the safe new drivers becasue some others made huge mistakes.