H.R. 1895: it's the thing I never knew which I now know I want to support.

I'd never heard of H.R. 1895 until very recently. Now that I have heard about it though, I wonder who in their right mind is not going to want to support this thing.

H.R. 1895 is also known as The Stand Up Act. Here's what it's all about:

The Safe Teen And Novice Driver Uniform Protection (STANDUP) Act would establish minimum standards for state graduated driver licensing (GDL) laws, which are proven to significantly reduce death and injury among young beginning drivers and those who share the road with them.

See vehicular accidents are the number one killer of teens in our country. Number one! And the fact is, teens are more likely to crash than any other demographic group of drivers. Like it's not even close.

Matter of fact...

--Teen drivers ages 16 to 19 have a fatality rate four times the rate of drivers ages 25 to 69.
--Sixteen-year-old drivers have a crash rate three times more than 17-year-olds, 5 times greater than 18-year-olds, and two times that of 85-year-olds.
(These stats come from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration -- but I am also cribbing a bunch of info from the website they built to support this law.)

I could go on and on pounding the table with data, the horror stories of lives cut short, tales of my own students who passed away in car accidents (or of friends when I was in high school) but it would be superfluous. I mean, do any of us not fear for the safety of teens when they get in a car... especially when they get in the car with another teen driver, getting a ride home from a "party"?

Here is an overview of the STANDUP Act as taken from their website:

States must meet the following requirements under the STANDUP Act:

--Three stages of licensing – learner’s permit, intermediate stage, and full licensure – should be used
--Age 16 should be the earliest age for entry into the learner’s permit process
--Nighttime driving while unsupervised should be restricted during the learner’s permit and intermediate stages, until full licensure at age 18
--Driving while using communication devices (cell phone calls, texting) should be prohibited at least until full licensure at age 18
--Unrestricted, full licensure should occur no earlier than age 18
--Passengers should be restricted – no more than one non-familial passenger under age 21 unless a licensed driver over age 21 is in the vehicle – until full licensure at age 18

H.R. 1895: it's the thing I never knew which I now know I want to support.

And as an English teacher, the connections to Tears of a Tiger are self-evident.