A new North Carolina law that goes into effect on October 1, 2011, changes the rules for teen drivers and how they can progress from having a learner’s permit to a provisional license. And according to an article in the News & Observer, a quirk in the language of the law could keep about 110,000 teens from getting their provisional licenses when expected. According to the N&O:
The law’s most sweeping change affects teens who want to trade up from a learner’s permit, which requires Mom or Dad in the front seat, to a provisional driver’s license, which carries fewer restrictions. They’ll have to produce logs – signed by parents – to show they drove with front-seat supervision for 60 hours. The logs must be spread over at least six weeks, including some night driving.
The problem is that teens who already have their learner’s permits and hoped to get their provisional licenses after October 1 will have to have driving logs…even though the logs hadn’t been required when their permits were issued. In fact, the blank forms haven’t even been distributed.
Sixty hours of front-seat time is a huge time commitment for teens, and even worse for parents. Can you imagine trying to find an extra 10 hours each week to go driving with your child?
Fortunately, the N&O has offered a solution: Start keeping your own logs. When the official log forms are distributed, you can simply transfer the information from your own logs to the proper forms required by law.
Today’s N&O offers downloadable copies of a sample driving log you can print out and use until an official form becomes available, the Teen “Driving to Live” Contract, and a Skills Mastery Checklist. We’ve also provided the links to the forms here (click for a pdf link):
To read the full article describing the new law from the News & Observer, click here: http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/08/16/1415694/obstacle-to-teen-license-under.html#ixzz1VDjU92rZ