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Instruction Program Requirements
41912. (a) The Legislature finds
and declares all of the following:
(1) To assist in reducing the number
of fatalities involving youthful drivers, a minimum
standard of six hours of behind-the-wheel driver
training conducted by a public or private secondary
school, or by a qualified instructor of a licensed
private driving school, shall be established.
(2) According to the National Highway
Traffic Safety Administration, traffic crashes are the
number one killer of teenagers. Per mile driven, teenage
drivers are involved in accidents four times as often as
adults.
(3) According to the Center for
Disease Control and Prevention, motor vehicle crashes
are the leading cause of death among youths 16 to 20
years of age. Nationwide, about 6,000 youths 16 to 20
years of age, die each year in traffic accidents.
Teenage drivers represent about 7 percent of the
country's population, but account for about 17 percent
of the victims of fatal crashes.
(4) According to the Department of
Motor Vehicles, during 1993, 4,163 people were killed
and 315,184 were injured in traffic accidents across the
state.
(5) According to the National Safety
Council, driver error causes 69 percent of all
automobile collisions. Annually, 11,900,000 accidents
occur nationwide resulting in 2,000,000 injuries and
42,000 fatalities. Automobile accidents cost one hundred
sixty-seven billion dollars ($167,000,000,000) annually.
(6) The Department of Motor Vehicles
has introduced the first major revision of the driver's
license test since 1933, in recognition of a need to
require first-time drivers to pass an examination
representative of the complex driving conditions
confronting motorists throughout the state. A minimum of
six hours of behind-the-wheel driver training conducted
by a public or private secondary school, or by a
qualified instructor of a licensed private driving
school, is required to prepare the first-time driver
under 18 years of age to pass this examination.
(b) The expressed purpose of the
Legislature is that highway accidents can and must be
reduced through the education and training of drivers
prior to licensing, and that this instruction properly
belongs in the high school curriculum on a basis of
having comparable standards of instruction, quality,
teacher-pupil ratio and class scheduling in driver
education as in other courses in the regular academic
program. Only through a high quality program of driver
instruction can the greatest potential in traffic
accident prevention be realized. Further, the state has
a responsibility to share in the reasonable costs of
providing those courses. |
