Pa. passes tougher rules on new teen drivers

HARRISBURG - When it comes to carloads of passengers and unbuckled seat belts, Pennsylvania is finally enacting laws that most states already have for new teenage drivers.

Those drivers will soon face limits on the number of nonfamily passengers they can carry, and they will have to complete more training hours behind the wheel, thanks to a bill that cleared the General Assembly on Wednesday. Gov. Corbett says he'll sign it.

But for now, nothing in state law bars teens from texting while driving.

The new law also will make driving without a seat belt a primary offense for teen drivers and their passengers - meaning police can pull over a vehicle for that violation without additional cause.

The bill passed the House without debate Wednesday. The 188-6 vote came after five years of wrangling in both chambers over specifics. None of the "no" votes came from representatives of the five-county Philadelphia area.

The final version limits teen drivers to one passenger - immediate family excepted - for the first six months after they receive a junior license. You can get such a license in Pennsylvania at 161/2.

If young drivers finish those six months with a spotless record, they will still be limited by the new law. Until age 18, they can carry no more than three passengers who aren't in their immediate family.

"For the first time, this bill backs up in law parents who say that for the first six months of having a license, the teen driver can't take a carload of friends to the pizzeria after a football game," said bill

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