On The Road With Cindy & Jeff | Teen drivers see changes this Saturday, March 31

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11/20/2008 6:33:09 PM

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Teen drivers see changes this Saturday, March 31

Posted by: Cindy Campbell on March 27, 2007 at 10:17AM EST

The Registry of Motor Vehicles reports that new penalties will be in effect for Junior Operators starting this Saturday. Even first-time offenders will face substantial fines, license suspensions, and reinstatement costs under the new “zero tolerance” environment for speeding or unsafe driving by teens.

According to the Registry, teens who receive a speeding ticket will face the following:

90 day license suspension (includes notification to parent or guardian)
$50 fine
Completion of the State Courts Against Road Rage (SCARR) program
Completion of an attitudinal retraining course
If the junior operator is found to be driving 10 MPH over the speed limit, he or she will incur additional $10 fines for each MPH over the speed limit and an additional $50 surcharge

These new penalties will apply to violations of the passenger and night driving restrictions, speeding and negligent or reckless operation while holding a learner’s permit or Junior Operator’s License.

For more information, go to www.mass.gov/rmv and look for the “Teens and Parents” section.

What are your thoughts on the Junior Driving penalties?

(1) Comments

Posted by: Man who's glad to be on public transit on March 27, 2007 10:58AM EST

If the goal is deterrence from bad driving behavior...no amount of stiff penalties will ever succeed. That's just basic human psychology - the risk/reward ratio is too lopsided when people (not just teens) see bad drivers every day and know that the odds of being "busted" are very low.

A more effective, albeit Orwellian, method of enforcing speed laws would be to require teen drivers to have speed governors and GPS tracking installed in their cars. Possibly the parents' cars with some provision for tracking who's actually driving (maybe an RFID chip embedded in each set of keys; many cars have that now).

I'd also politely suggest that perhaps a traffic crackdown on cabs and police might also be in order. No drivers are worse drivers than cab drivers...except for the local cops. And no drivers are worse drivers than the local cops...except the state police. It's hard to take Officer O'Malley seriously when he's lecturing us about "click it or ticket"...while we see cops routinely use flashers just to get through a crowded intersection, or to ignore "no u turn" signs, or to roar down the Mass Pike at 90+ MPH. And the cabs! Is there some law against using turn signals that I'm not aware of???