Palacios, Covenant-Saipan, said the House Committee on Education which he chairs will meet with the officials of BMV on Tuesday next week to discuss the implementation of the newly enacted Public Law 17-45 which also increases the driver’s license fee from $30 to $40.
Gov. Benigno R. Fitial vetoed the measure, saying that BMV doesn’t have the resources to run a driver education program which, he added, may also expose the government to liabilities should accidents occur with a student driver.
Lawmakers overrode his veto after first-time drivers and their parents complained about the $350 tuition charged by the island’s lone driving school.
Palacios said that right now, people who will drive for the first time have nowhere to go because the Driver Training Academy is closed.
Rich Puhalla, the academy’s owner, is on a medical leave.
Palacios said “there seems to be confusion among the people at BMV that is why they still do not implement the law.”
BMV officials, he added, apparently believe that P.L. 17-45 requires them to put up a classroom for student drivers.
That is not true, he said.
BMV can go back to how it was prior to the enactment of P.L. 15-25 or the Mandatory Driver Education Act of 2006, he added.
Applicants can once again simply take the written and actual tests to get a driver’s license, the lawmaker said.
He said BMV needs to start doing it now because “what if Puhalla decides to shutdown his school?”
P.L. 15-25 was passed by lawmakers after some members of the community expressed concern about road accidents involving young and nonresident motorists who did not undergo driver education.
Legislature back then said it “intended to protect the public and reduce the number of traffic accidents involving first time inexperienced drivers.”
