Latest news with #driverseducation
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
Mandatory driver's education to expand under new Washington law
The Brief House Bill 1878 expands mandatory driver's education to drivers up to 21 years old by 2030, and introduces safe driving courses for young drivers with traffic tickets. The law aims to reduce high crash rates among young drivers by offering vouchers for driving school costs, online courses, and accommodating training hardships. Concerns about online instruction quality persist, with suggestions for partnerships with commercial driving schools to address public school program challenges. OLYMPIA, Wash. - Young drivers will eventually have to get more traffic safety education under legislation signed into law this month. House Bill 1878, which got Gov. Ferguson's approval on May 17, annually expands mandatory driver's education to drivers up to 21-years-old by 2030, starting with 18-year-olds in 2027. Right now, only 16 and 17-year-olds have to take driver's ed before getting their first license. The bill also requires safe driving courses for young drivers who accumulate traffic tickets. And starting in 2031, drivers under 21 will be required to take a traffic safety "refresher course" to retain their license. What they're saying Prime sponsor, Rep. Brandy Donaghy, D-Mill Creek, said the sweeping legislation helps move the needle when it comes to safe streets. "Our goal here is to make sure that our roadways are as safe as possible for everybody on them," she said in an interview Wednesday. "If you know what the rules are, and you know the ways you can deal with icy roads or low-visibility conditions, you're automatically going to be in a better position when you face those on the roads." Mark McKechnie, External Relations Director for the Washington Traffic Safety Commission, said young drivers are disproportionately involved in serious or deadly crashes. A state report found that while people aged 15 to 24 make up just 10.6% of drivers, they were involved in crashes that resulted in 26% of all fatalities and 29% of all serious injuries between 2020 and 2022. "For 18 to 25-year-olds who had not taken driver education, they had more than a 60% higher rate of crash involvement," McKechnie said. While driver's ed makes someone less likely to get in a crash, he said, young people do not go because it is either too expensive, or it is not available in their area. To make driving school more accessible, the law also creates a voucher program to help with costs, allows online driving courses, and lets students do most of their behind-the-wheel training in one day if they have hardships like living far away. "Rather than force them to travel one to two hours to be able to get to somebody for 30- to 60-minute sessions, we did want to provide an opportunity for them to at least have a chance to get that time in without it being more of a burden," Donaghy said. The other side "I'm a history major, I teach [English language arts], I teach a whole myriad of different subjects. But in a way, there's nothing that I've taught that is more important than driver education," said Alex Hansen, President of the Washington Traffic Safety Education Association. The public school teacher, driving instructor and teacher of other instructors said he applauds lawmakers for trying to tackle a big challenge – but believes the bill does not get up to speed. He expressed concern about the quality of instruction through online means and allowing students to accomplish a majority of behind-the-wheel instruction in one day, calling the changes "educationally unsound." Hansen said he ultimately believes supporting traffic safety education in public schools is the best way to promote safety. "Public schools are designed to address and teach all kids," he said. "Kids who have access to a driver education program in the local high school where they already attend, they're gonna take it. But only 20 schools in the state of Washington currently still offer it – when almost every school back in the 90s when I taught it offered it, and almost everybody took it." Donaghy said there are many factors that complicate bringing driver's ed back to schools, like staffing shortages, liability and cost. Though she said partnerships with commercial driving schools could go a long way. What's next In a statement, a Department of Licensing spokesperson said the agency will be working closely with the education association, traffic safety commission and other partners to successfully implement the bill, which is "expected to significantly enhance road safety and modernize driver education in Washington, impacting all road users." While the legislation expands mandatory driver training to 21, Donaghy said the goal is to ultimately expand it to age 25. Albert James is a television reporter covering state government as part of the Murrow News Fellowship program – a collaborative effort between news outlets statewide and Washington State University. The Source Information in this story comes from original reporting by Murrow News Fellow Albert James. A religious group is set to protest outside Seattle City Hall. Here's why Crews battle Second Creek Fire near Leavenworth, WA 2 injured in separate Seattle shootings Teen, child killed in Lacey, WA mobile home fire Dave's Hot Chicken to open 4 new locations in Seattle area. Here's where To get the best local news, weather and sports in Seattle for free, sign up for the daily FOX Seattle Newsletter. Download the free FOX LOCAL app for mobile in the Apple App Store or Google Play Store for live Seattle news, top stories, weather updates and more local and national news.
CBC
3 days ago
- Business
- CBC
Limited spots for driver's ed program drive up demand, causing long lineups at MPI
Big demand for Manitoba Public Insurance's condensed driver's education program drove teens to long lineups outside MPI offices on Wednesday. Only a fraction of those who lined up in Winnipeg were able to get spots in the program.
CBC
3 days ago
- Business
- CBC
'Just ridiculous': Teens line up to snag limited spots in Manitoba driver's education summer program
Social Sharing A surge in demand for a provincial driver's education program drove teens and their parents to line up outside Manitoba Public Insurance offices on Wednesday to get one of the limited spots. The line at the MPI location at the corner of Bison Drive and Barnes Street started forming at 5 a.m. and was about 120 people deep by 7:15 a.m. In Brandon, the lineup outside Guild Insurance Group on Victoria Avenue started around 8 p.m. Tuesday and had reached 40 by Wednesday morning. Registration didn't start until 8 a.m. The courses were sold out by 10:30 a.m. provincewide. "I didn't believe that getting into this driver's ed is this, what I call it, stressful. It's just ridiculous. I couldn't believe it," said Andrew Bawa, who was in the Bison Drive lineup with his 15-year-old daughter, Elswidih. She will turn 16 soon and has friends already driving, while others are wrapping up Driver Z classes that started earlier in the year. She expected it to be busy but was determined to get a spot, and arrived at 6:15 a.m. "It'll be nice to drive, not having to ask your parents to take you everywhere," she said. MPI staff went down the line handing out numbers to confirm people's spots in line. When those numbers ran out, there were some tears. "I can't just imagine you're here, thinking that you'll get in, and then they tell you 'Sorry,'" Andrew Bawa said. "Some of these kids were crying. I know what that means for your child." He's not sure what MPI should do, but suggested the insurer improve the system somehow so young kids don't need to be so stressed. "I don't think it should be this difficult." MPI announced earlier this month that it would again be offering a condensed version of its Driver Z course this summer. Spokesperson Tara Seel said there were 384 available spots in Winnipeg and 204 spots across the rest of the province. That total of 588 is up from past years, when it was 312. The spots are limited because there is a shortage of Driver Z trainers, Seel said. "It's not us not wanting to offer the course more. We would offer as much as we could," she said. MPI was able to bump up the offerings this summer because it recruited nearly 30 new instructors, but that's still not enough. "We're always looking. If anybody is interested in being a driving instructor, please reach out to MPI. We're constantly recruiting," said Seel. "We recognize how frustrating it must be for parents. We apologize. We don't want to see people going through that." Tejal Makwana and her son also lined up at the Bison Drive office, knowing how busy it would be. Like Bawa, she's not sure how MPI could make the process better, other than perhaps opening more registration locations. If it was online, it would likely cause problems with the system pretty quickly, she said. "Just look at the people willing to stand in line. It's going to crash at 8 a.m., and that's another headache for them to manage," Makwana said. In Brandon, Ty Aldcroft and buddies Brayson Gerdis and Jonah Lepishak, all 15, camped out starting at 7:45 p.m. Tuesday. "Twelve hours is a long wait," Aldcroft said, but he didn't want to risk not locking up a spot. "I probably wouldn't get in. Chances are slim. It's worth it, I think." Lindsay Dietrich arrived with her son around 9:30 p.m. and settled in front of Guild Insurance — conveniently located next to a Tim Hortons. "Blankets and lawn chair, that's all we [brought]. Didn't even need to worry about snacks, 'cause restaurant's right beside us, which was awesome," she said. She has two older daughters and neither had to wait in line. "It's crazy. I also have a nine-year-old at home, so I'm hoping they fix this before we have to go back and do this again." Courses sold out quickly As for those trying to get some of the coveted spots, MPI's Seel said there are alternatives to camping out and standing in line. Registering for a time slot can be done by visiting an MPI broker or calling MPI's contact centre. "It seems like a lot of people chose the third option of going to the service centre and created some of those lineups," Seel said, but admitted many people who did try calling encountered busy signals. To access one of the other options, people had to first go to an MPI contact centre ahead of time and create a new customer profile. That has to be done in person in order to verify a person's identity. They could also pay for the Drive Z course at that time, so that on Wednesday, all they needed to do was pick a time slot, Seel said. But many of those who stood in line didn't do that, so the entire procedure was slowed down by having to create customer profiles and process payments for the course before choosing a time slot. In the meantime, those slots are being snapped up at other locations and over the phone, Seel said. In the end, just 17 per cent of the 200-ish people in line at the Bison Drive service centre secured a course slot. The number was closer to 25 per cent for those in line at the Main Street centre in Winnipeg, said Seel, who didn't have numbers for the St. Mary's Road centre. "Brandon sold out very quickly," where the number of summer courses had doubled to four from two last year, Seel said. The program uses a mix of in-person and virtual classes as well as in-car training to teach students driving skills. It allows teens to start taking instruction at 15½ years old, giving them a six-month jump on the graduated licence program in Manitoba. It's typically a 12-week course, but the condensed version will be five weeks and run in July and August, a news release from MPI said. The condensed program will have two weeks of virtual classes followed by three weeks of in-car lessons. The July course will take place in Arborg, Beausejour, Brandon, Portage la Prairie, Steinbach, Winkler and Winnipeg. In August it will be in Brandon, Steinbach, Winkler, Winnipeg and The Pas.
CBC
3 days ago
- General
- CBC
Teens line up to snag limited spots in Manitoba driver education summer program
A surge in demand for a provincial driver's education program has driven teens and their parents to line up outside Manitoba Public Insurance offices to get one of the limited spots. The line at the MPI location at the corner of Bison Drive and Barnes Street started forming at 5 a.m. and was about 80 people deep by 7:00 a.m. and continuing to grow. The doors open for registration at 7:30 a.m. MPI announced earlier this month that it would be offering a condensed form of its Driver Z course this summer. The program uses a mix of in-person and virtual classes as well as in-car training to teach students driving skills. It's typically a 12-week course but the condensed version will be five weeks and take place in July and August, according to a news release from MPI. The condensed program will have two weeks of virtual classes followed by three weeks of in-car lessons. The July course will take place in Arborg, Beausejour, Brandon, Portage la Prairie, Steinbach, Winkler and Winnipeg. In August it will be in August in Brandon, Steinbach, Winkler, Winnipeg and The Pas. Students must attend all classes to complete the course.
