The Senate Transportation and Safety Committee has approved legislation that would require driver’s licenses to be printed vertically for anyone under the age of 21 in Tennessee.
The legislation, known as Senate Bill 384, passed the committee on Wednesday, and lawmakers said it would help businesses easily identify those who are not supposed to drink, in an effort to curb underage drinking.
Upon turning 21, each person would have the choice of turning the license horizontal for the reduced cost of a duplicate license.
At the moment, only a small, red bar along the side of the photo on the license indicates that a person is under 21 years old.
“What this really addresses is underage drinking,” said Senator Becky Duncan Massey. “Excessive drinking is responsible for more than 4,300 deaths nationwide among underage youths each year. Servers have found the small red bar presently on Tennessee licenses is hard to read, especially in high volume hours when a clerk or waiter is very busy. This legislation will make it much quicker and easier to identify a person who is under the age of 21 to curb any unintentional mistakes that might otherwise occur.”
Reports stated there were 28 traffic fatalities in the state in 2016 that involved a person 15 to 20 years old that measured a blood alcohol level greater than .01 percent.
Statistics also showed that approximately 17 percent of those ages 12 to 20 years old in the state had consumed alcohol with in the past month.
Senator Massey said license are vertical for drivers under age 21 in more than two-thirds of the states across the nation.
The bill was set to head to the Senate Finance, Ways and Means Committee before possibly moving to the full Senate for a final vote.
