Pennsylvania enacts new rules for young drivers

Young drivers in Pennsylvania are going to have to deal with some new regulations beginning Tuesday.  

PennDOT’s Brad Rudolph says the new regulations include more hours of supervised driving time for teens with learner’s permits before they can receive their junior driver’s license.

“The law currently has 50 hours of driving logged before you can obtain your junior license,” said Rudolph.  “Now you must drive 65 there’s the additional 15, 10 of those hours must be at night and five of those hours must be in poor or adverse weather conditions.”

Ruldolph says when it comes to passengers, those with a junior license also are limited to just one young non-family member.

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“The purpose of this is new drivers cause a lot of accidents we just want them to be more skilled and have more driving experience before they hit the road by themselves without a parent,” he said.

The regulations also gives police the right to pull over drivers under 18 for not wearing a seatbelt.  By making it a primary offense, officers can enforce the seatbelt law even if a young driver isn’t doing anything else wrong.

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