#Roommates, many were shocked to learn of a new Georgia guideline put in place as a response to the coronavirus outbreak, allowing teen driver’s to obtain their driver’s license without taking the road test. Well, as expected, thousands of teens have taken advantage of the new requirement—and are now officially licensed Georgia drivers.
@CNN reports, when the coronavirus hit the U.S., Georgia decided to combat the backlog of thousands of road test requests from teen drivers by stripping away the mandatory road test needed to obtain a state driver’s license. Fast forward a few weeks, and almost 20,000 Georgia teens (19,483 to be exact) are now licensed to driver in the state—without ever actually being tested about their physical skills behind the wheel.
If you’re wondering about the process for obtaining a license for a first-time driver without a road test, well here it is. Teen drivers must have held their learners permit for 1 year and 1 day with no violations and completed at least 40 hours of supervised driving. From there, all they are now required to do is take the written test, pass it and then apply for your license online. Naturally, many Georgia residents are outraged regarding the new guideline because they say that it is very dangerous, especially on the highly overcrowded state highways.
Georgia is not the only state deciding to waive road tests for the foreseeable future, as Wisconsin has also put similar measures in place. The Wisconsin Department of Transportation estimates that out of the 16,000 road test requests that have been on hold, its new state program will officially allow 10,000 of those requests to be eligible to waive taking a road test.
Meanwhile, Sarah Casto, a driving instructor at 1st Stop Georgia Driving Academy, recently created an online petition to get Georgia Governor Brian Kemp to change his decision on waiving road tests.
“Everyone’s response is always that parents should be responsible for their kids, but we can’t assume that everyone has responsible parents. That is a dangerous idea,” Casto recently stated in an interview with local media outlets. As of right now, there is no word on when the driving test requirements will go back to normal.
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