ATLANTA — When word got out that new drivers, including teens, did not need to take a road test to get a license, it raised eyebrows across the state.
Gov. Brian Kemp's executive order signed on April 23, 2020, waived the requirement for most automobile road tests until the Public State of Emergency is terminated.
The order states that if you are between 16 and 18 years old and have had a learners permit (Class CP) for one year and one day with no violations, the system will display your license as a Class D. What the order did not clarify is that those drivers would need to take a road test once the emergency order is lifted - and by Sept. 30, 2020.
"That was always the case," Gov. Kemp said during a press briefing on May 12. "We just wanted to clarify that. We had a lot of questions out there for that."
Kemp said he signed a new order Tuesday - and was something that the legal team recommended.
Candice Broce, a spokeswoman for the governor's office told 11Alive that the governor simply suspended the on-the-road-test.
"The Governor’s emergency powers are limited to suspending existing law in narrow circumstances. He merely suspended the on-the-road test via earlier executive order, and now in today’s order, it is crystal clear that anyone who received a driver’s license must get an on-the-road test by September 30, 2020."
At the 1st Stop Georgia Driving Academy in McDonough, instructor Sarah Casto was furious when the news came out in April. She told 11Alive that the leading cause of teenage deaths is auto accidents.
She even started an online petition to change the Governor’s executive order, which now claims "victory" with more than 2,500 signatures.
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