Nearly 20,000 Georgia Teens are Issued Driver’s Licenses Without a Road Test
upstart writes in with an IRC submission for Bytram:
Nearly 20,000 Georgia Teens Are Issued Driver's Licenses Without a Road Test:
Gov. Brian Kemp suspended the requirement that most Georgians pass a behind-the-wheel test when applying for licenses last month.
Like Georgia, Wisconsin also amended its procedures for issuing new driver's licenses because of the coronavirus pandemic. Last month, Georgia waived its road-test requirement for most drivers in an effort to help fight the spread of the coronavirus. This week, the state said it had issued driver's licenses to thousands of teenagers without one.
There have been 19,483 teens who upgraded their permit to a provisional driver's license with the consent of their parent or responsible adult," Susan Sports, a spokeswoman for the state's Department of Driver Services, said on Thursday.
These teens held a permit for a year and a day and complied with all Georgia's mandatory driver education requirements," including 40 hours of supervised training behind the wheel, she said.
Gov. Brian Kemp suspended the road-test requirement for most Georgians applying for driver's licenses in an April 23 executive order.
[...] Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for American teenagers, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The risk of motor vehicle crashes is higher among drivers ages 16 to 19 than among any other age group, the C.D.C. said, noting that drivers in that age group were three times as likely to be in a fatal crash compared with drivers 20 and older. Teenage drivers' risk of crashing is particularly high during their first months of having a license.
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