There is no doubt that being a teen driver comes with a sort of stigma. No matter how good a teen’s driving skills may be, their age brands them as unstable, reckless, and inexperienced.
Does a recently passed New Jersey law which requires drivers under the age of twenty-one to have special stickers on their license plates add to that stigma? Or worse, does it constitute age discrimination? Rockaway-based attorney Gregg D. Trautmann thinks it does, and he is challenging the law.
“Kyleigh’s Law,” which was passed last Wednesday, was named for Kyleigh D’Allesio, a Long Valley honor student who was killed in a car crash in December, 2006, and New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine says that it’s an important tool that will help local police enforce safety restrictions already in place, such as night driving curfews and passenger limits.
Trautmann, however, begs to differ. In his suit, filed last Friday, he claims that the required license plate decals would be more like magnets, identifying teen drivers for police to pull over, or making them targets of sex offenders or others who might target young people. No hearing court date has yet been scheduled.