Blair's impact on Maryland's new teen driving laws

On the final day of the 2005 Maryland General Assembly in Annapolis, the state Congress passed four of the five bills proposed to curb the recent rash of teen driving deaths in the region. The four that were passed on April 11, 2005 and an earlier bill that passed in March, made it through the stack of over 2,500 proposed bills and were sent to the Governor due in large part to advocacy by a Blair alum and three current Blazers.

Three of the five teen driving bills that passed the Maryland legislature were drafted and created by Delegate William Bronrott (D-Bethesda), a 1973 graduate of Blair. Three of the teenagers to testify at the State House in favor of the bills were Blazer sophomores Isaac Arnsdorf, Avi Edelman and Adam Yalowitz, whom Bronrott credited with giving him "a lot of support" in the quest to pass these laws.

Del. Bronrott and co-author of one bill, Del. Adrienne A. Mandel (D-Silver Spring), helped to spearhead the effort to pass teen driving restrictions in the state. Since 1999, Dels. Bronrott and Mandel had been pushing a bill designed to stop teen drivers from carrying any non-family passengers during the first five months they have their provisional license.

For years, their bill had been lost in the shuffle of the thousands of proposed laws that come up every year in Annapolis. The passenger restriction law took over half a decade to pass House and Senate votes, something that did not surprise Bronrott. "Because we have 2,500 bills a session, not everything that deserves to rise does," he explained. In previous years, their bill didn't get enough votes to pass.

Bronrott said that in 1998, when Maryland passed the Graduated Drivers License bill, which implemented a provisional period for drivers, "it was a huge victory for Maryland road safety, and the feeling was that the state had done enough. Delegate Mandel and I backed more, but the feeling that we found was that convenience was more important than safety."

But their push gained new life because of a spike in teen driving deaths that the bill hopes to curb. Twenty-one teens have died in the last year on Washington-area roads, many of them in Montgomery County.

Del. Bronrott's bills also included a ban on teen cell phone use while driving, and a law that increased the required practice driving time during the permit period from 40 to 60 hours. Those last two bills passed in less than two years, very rare for the state legislature, Bronrott said. "It's very unusual for a bill to pass its first or second year," he said. "It typically takes around six years to pass a bill."

Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr. (R) proposed the two other laws that passed. One mandated that the 18-month provisional license period would restart if a driver was caught violating the midnight to 5 a.m. curfew on driving. The other extends the learners permit period from four months to six. All five laws will go into effect Oct. 1, 2005, pending Gov. Ehrlich's signature. Bronrott expected the signatures to be a formality. "From everything I've ascertained, [Gov. Ehrlich] will pass them in May," he said.

When asked if the spike of fatalities this past fall in the metro area helped speed up the legislation, Bronrott said "no doubt" it had an effect. "There was an needless number of teen drivers and passengers that didn't have adequate preparation to drive on the road," which led to the fatalities, he said. "The pressure reached critical mass this year."

When Bronrott opened the session on Jan. 25, Bronrott said he wanted dearly to pass this legislation to help teens on the road. "At the start of the 2005 legislative session," he said, "our goal by the end of the year was to declare it the 'Year of the Teen Driver.' We're grateful we had the banner year we had."

The delegate gave major credit to three Blazers who he said sent a "strong message" to doubters of the laws. Arnsdorf, Edelman and Yalowitz all testified on Feb. 9 in front of the House Environmental Matters Committee in Annapolis that they and their peers needed tougher driving laws.

Arnsdorf and Edelman explained that they got involved with Bronrott thanks to the CAP Change Project at school designed to encourage kids to express their voice and desire for altering governmental policies they disagree with.

Edelman said that, "The project was to get us to try and change things we disagree with by contacting policy makers that are working on it. Our biggest issue was with the cell phone law," that allowed teens talk on their cell phone while driving. He added that the three "hooked up with Delegate Bronrott when we found out he was already working" on teen driving legislation.

When the Blazers arrived at the State House in Annapolis that February morning, Arnsdorf said they were met by around "five to ten" other teens that were there to testify as well. "There were definitely a few teens there, and that made a difference," Arnsdorf said, adding, "I think [the teen testimony] made a big impact. The belief was that teens didn't want these bills, and we helped" diffuse that notion.

Edelman agreed with Arnsdorf and said that he's hopeful the laws are effective. "All the [bills] we were there to support got passed and I'm hopeful they'll work."

Bronrott echoed Arnsdorf's sentiments and said that the three were instrumental in helping diffuse the notion that teens were against these laws. "They helped diffuse the notion that teen drivers would be against the bills," he said. "When they showed up it sent a strong message that kids wanted safe highways, too. The hearing put the bills at the forefront of the legislature," he said.

"If I was 16," Bronrott added, "I wouldn't want adults telling me what to do." The support from teens, he said, was "a pleasant surprise." He said he was "shocked" by all the teens who testified on Feb. 9 in favor of the law.

The committee that had killed the bills previously was convinced, the bills got through and Bronrott gave credit to all involved. "We achieved it with the support we got from both parties," he asserted, attributing more credit to the Democratic controlled House and Senate. "Credit where credit's due; the Democratic leadership made sure the bills passed. If the leadership of [House Speaker] Del. Michael Busch (D-Odenton) and [HEM Committee chairwoman] Del. Maggie McIntosh (D-Baltimore) didn't embrace the bills, they'd be gone."

When the bills went through, they were a win for the Republican governor just a year away from what will likely be a brutal re-election campaign. But Bronrott asserted that this was a time that safety transcended political bickering. "I tried to portray [the bills] by saying that 'dying on our highways is not partisan politics.'"

The long road for the laws met on votes in March and April. The passenger restriction bill in the senate drafted by Sen. Kevin P. Dyson (D-St. Mary's) passed by a clear 17-3 margin on March 14. Bronrott and Mandel's bill passed 105-30, and were eventually merged and sent through the Senate again with a wide majority. "We crossed party lines and geographic lines in ways we hadn't before" to pass these laws, he said.

The other four bills passed the legislature on April 11, the last day of the session. They are now currently awaiting Gov. Ehrlich's ratification.

The laws, Bronrott said, were "part of a growing drumbeat that [members of the administration] were supporters of us." Ehrlich's bills "showed that all parties were on board and it was nice support because we can't get the laws on the books without the governor's signature."

Back at Blair, Edelman said that most of his friends were warming up to the laws, as well. "Their first reaction is not positive, but when we explain that their small inconveniences really do make a big difference, they really open up to the idea."