RICHMOND, Va. — It could get a bit easier for parents and teenagers to take a required driver’s education class that’s meant to scare families and their young drivers.
The Virginia Senate Transportation Committee voted 13-0 Wednesday in favor of a bill that would make clear that private driver training schools can offer the joint 90-minute class based on a state-produced video to Northern Virginia parents and teens.
“If you’ve not been there, if you’ve not seen that video, it will scare the living daylights out of you, and that’s what it’s designed to do,” Del. Tag Greason said.
The original requirement was introduced after then-Del. Mark Dudenhefer’s daughter was killed in a crash in 2004 — just one of many teenagers to die in Stafford County over a three-year period, Greason said.
The class is currently offered as part of high school driver’s education classes. Private companies that offer the courses have offered similar content, but want to ensure that state law gives parents and teenagers credit for attending their courses.
Families who pay for private instruction would still be required to see similar information about parents’ responsibilities for teen drivers, restrictions on drivers under age 18, and the dangers of drunken driving and underage drinking.
“This is an option for parents to have more availability … to see that scare-the-living-daylights-out-of-you video with your young driver,” Greason said.
Sen. John Cosgrove hopes the class requirement eventually expands beyond Northern Virginia to cover the entire state.
“When I was going through driver’s ed, we saw some pretty graphic stuff and it did — it scared the you-know-what out of you,” he said. “I went to driver’s ed a long time ago and I still remember those movies.”
