Hurdle added for adults who seek license

In the name of driver safety, Ohio lawmakers are putting more roadblocks between some first-time drivers and the wheel.

Starting Saturday, adult applicants for a driver’s license who fail the driving test on their first try will have to take an abbreviated driver-training course before their next attempt.

Unlike teenage drivers, who are required to take courses that provide at least 24 hours of classroom instruction and eight hours of behind-the-wheel training, first-time applicants who are 18 or older can get a driver’s license without taking a class.

Passing the driving test without training isn’t always easy, though. About 86,000 Ohio adults typically fail the exam each year.

In recent years, more first-time drivers have been waiting until they are at least 18 to get a driver’s license, said Karhlton Moore, executive director of the Ohio Office of Criminal Justice Services, which oversees driver training for the state.

“That means we have more people on the roads who haven’t gone through any

type of driver education,” Moore said.

With the new rule, adult applicants who fail their first exam will have to complete a four-hour course either online or in-person. Behind-the-wheel training also will be required and can be completed by driving for four hours with an instructor or 24 hours with a licensed driver who is 21 or older.

The classes will be a condensed version of the instruction that teen drivers receive and will go over the essentials of safe driving, Moore said, from the proper placement of mirrors to the dangers of distracted driving.

“You might be able to maneuver a car. You might be able to drive a car,”

“This is not going to be an uncontroversial bill. We’re going to tick off some teens, and maybe even some parents.”

—Michael Sheehy, state representative

Moore said. “But that doesn’t mean you’re aware of everything you need to be aware of when you’re out on the road.”

Legislators are considering instituting more safety measures for teen drivers, too. A House bill introduced on Tuesday would require teens to hold a temporary permit for a year before taking the driving test. It also would prohibit newly licensed teens from driving between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m.

Temporary permits currently are issued at age 15 and must be held for six months before a teen takes the driving test. Current nighttime restrictions for teen drivers start at midnight.

That nighttime limit doesn’t cut it, the bill’s supporters say, because 75 percent of nighttime crashes involving teens occur between 9 p.m. and midnight.

Representatives Gary Scherer, R-Circleville, and Michael Sheehy, D-Oregon, are sponsoring the bill.

“This is not going to be an uncontroversial bill,” said Sheehy. “We’re going to tick off some teens, and maybe even some parents.”

Both legislators spoke Thursday at the Statehouse about their children having been involved in serious crashes.

Although the bill would double the time that a temporary permit must be held, it would neither delay the age at which teens can get a temporary permit nor increase the 50 hours of supervised driving that teens must complete before taking the driver’s exam, the bill’s sponsors confirmed.

However, the bill’s requirement that a temporary permit be held for one year would, in effect, change Ohio’s legal driving age to 16 . A temporary permit is valid for only one year; the bill would make it valid for 2

years.