Connecticut Opens Center to Promote Safer Driving by Teenagers

The state Department of Motor Vehicles is setting up a safe driving program for teenagers in response to several fatal car accidents in Connecticut over the past year.

Gov. M. Jodi Rell says the Center for Teen Safe Driving will lead efforts to improve safety awareness among young drivers and their parents.

The center will promote tougher driving laws proposed by the governor, coordinate enforcement campaigns for those laws, collect data on teen driver violations and recommend policy changes.

The state House of Representatives has approved a bill that would increase restrictions on passengers teen drivers may have in their cars and move up the teen driver curfew to 11 p.m. from midnight.

The proposal would also increase the number of hours of on-the-road training for teens from 20 hours to 40 hours and impose a reckless driving charge if a teen drives 20 mph or more over the speed limit. The bill now goes to the Senate.