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Car accidents are the leading cause of death for teenagers in this country, and the wrongful death rate for Arkansas teenage drivers is far higher than in other states.
After many teen driers lost their lives in car accidents, the Arkansas Senate proposed new laws (Bills 309 and 78) that bring some of the state’s teenage driver laws to stop these car accidents. If approved, Arkansas State Legislature Senate Bill 309 will require teens to complete a more rigorous car driver’s licensing process as compared to current standards.
The first law (Senate Bill 309) intends to implement graduated driver-licensing, a three-staged process that makes roads safer for everyone by teen driver wrongful deaths. Meanwhile, Senate Bill 78 will make the state’s car seat belt laws tougher by allowing police officers pull over adult or teen car drivers who have not used their automobile’s seat belt. In other words, seat belt laws will be more strictly enhanced and enforced.
Our car accident attorneys know that — right now — teenager drivers are fast-tracked to getting a full license. The new licensing format, they say, will provide a more thorough introduction to driving by placing tighter restrictions on teenage drivers.
Teenage drivers will receive an intermediate car driver’s license and undergo a supervised learning period. These teenage auto drivers will not be allowed to drive unsupervised between the hours of 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. unless traveling to school, church events, or work. Most teenage wrongful death car accidents occur between the hours of 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. during weekends.
Car accident statistics from the Injury Prevention Center indicate that graduated licensing and primary seat belt laws greatly reduce traffic-fatality rates. People wear seat belts more often in states with primary seat belt laws than in ones without such laws. Teens who have earned their driver’s licenses through the graduated methods have lower accident rates, which mean fewer injuries and wrongful deaths.
Teens will not be allowed to drive with more than one passenger in order to limit any dangerous distractions, nor will they be allowed to use a cell phone while driving except in emergencies.
As car accident lawyers, we hope that these new laws may help prevent teenage driver car accidents. Teenage wrongful deaths from fatal car accidents happen far too frequently to be allowed to continue.
Thankfully, some states have seen drops in fatality rates among teens by as much as 38 percent and 40 percent drops in injurious car accidents. There were 679 Arkansans between the ages of 14 and 20 who died in car wrecks from 2000 to 2005, a figure far higher than the rest of the nation, according to the Center for Disease Control.
Hopefully, these new teenage driver laws will help lower those car accident statistics.
Please contact us for a free consultation with an experienced car accident attorney — we speak both English and Spanish — at (800) 655-6585. Click here and you may also submit your case for a Free Review. No fee if no recovery.
SENIOR PERSONAL INJURY ATTORNEY & FIRM FOUNDER
Michael Pines is a former insurance company attorney who graduated from the University of California Hastings College of the Law in 1987. While he was an insurance attorney, he learned from behind the scenes how insurance companies work and how they decide how much to pay injured people. Now that he works against insurance companies, Michael’s inside knowledge has resulted in significant benefits to his clients injured in car accidents. Learn more about Michael Pines