Indiana is following many other states in the effort to reduce the number of casualties among teen drivers by introducing new licensing laws and restrictions that will have to be observed by Indiana drivers license and learners permit applicants. These new licensing laws raise the bar for traffic safety and will definitely play a major role in reducing the number of teenage drivers injured in traffic accidents.
Current Rules
If you are a teenager applying for an Indiana learners permit today, you have to be at least 15 years od age if you are enrolled in a state-approved drivers education class and 16 years of age if you are not participating in drivers ed. If you are applying for a drivers license, you have to be at least 16 years old and have completed a drivers ed class and 16 years, 6 months, if you have not participated in drivers ed. You must hold your Indiana learners permit for at least 60 days before you can take a drivers test and receive your provisional license.
The New Graduated License Laws
The new Indiana graduated drivers license laws that go info effect tomorrow, July 01, 2010, raise the minimum permit and license ages and introduce additional requirements that have to be met by all teens.
First of all, the minimum age for applying for an Indiana drivers education permit was changes from 15 to 15 and 1/2. Please remember: you have to be enrolled in an Indiana drivers education program and be able to present your certificate of drivers education (CDE) at the BMV on the day of your application. If you choose not to enroll in drivers ed, you have to be at least 16 years of age before the state accepts your application for a permit.
The minimum age for obtaining a probationary Indiana drivers license was also changed. Those who apply for a license after tomorrow will have to be at least 16 years, 180 days old if they competed drivers ed and 16 years, 270 days old if they have not taken any drivers education classes.
The minimum holding period for the permit was changed from 60 days to 180 days, quite a drastic move.
In addition to the above requirements, the state also introduced mandatory supervised driving hours that must be completed by all teenage drivers license applicants. Teens will need to complete at least 50 hours of driving under the supervision of a parent or legal guardian before they can be issued with a probationary license, with 10 of these hours done at night time.
All these changes will go into effect tomorrow, 01 July, 2010. All testing procedures remain the same, you still have to take an Indiana permit test and an Indiana drivers test before you can get a drivers license. Check out a free Indiana practice permit test to see if you are ready for the real thing.
What Do We Expect Of This Change
I our opinion, this is a great move towards making our roads safer. Lately, many states have been adopting similar laws, for example, the graduated license system in Texas has seen a major increase in the required driving hours this May, the hours went from just 14 to 36. All these moves go towards releasing more educated drivers on our roads, which serves well not only them but also those who surround them.
Of course, the state should not stop at this point and this should be just one of the many improvements that could be introduced. The graduated drivers license system in Maryland should be taken as a core model and the graduated license laws should apply to new drivers of all ages, not just teens. Similar laws are used all over Europe and they do tend to produce safer drivers.
