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Minutes for HB2083 - Committee on Insurance
Short Title
Establishing a minimum course duration for motor vehicle accident prevention courses.
Minutes Content for Wed, Feb 6, 2019
Chairperson Vickrey opened the hearing for HB 2083.
Mary Tritsch, AARP Kansas, testified in support of the bill. She said she is both the Communications Director for AARP and also served as the liaison for drivers' education. She said that for over 30 years the AARP Smart Driver program had been providing refresher courses. Participant surveys showed that nine out of 10 participants reported changing at least one key driving behavior for the better. They learned how to compensate for changes in age, health, medication and reaction time (Attachment 3).
Ms. Tritsch said the AARP developed a 4-hour course and Kansas was one of only six states that still required an 8-hour course. As a result, drivers traveled to other states and took the 4-hour course in order to receive the insurance discount. She recommended two changes in the bill: striking "national safety counsel or a state or federal agency" as an approving entities and inserting the Kansas Department of Insurance as the approving entity.
Norraine Wingfield, Kansas Traffic Safety Resource Office, provided written testimony in support of the bill. She said older drivers made up to 18 percent of traffic fatalities in 2016 (up 3 percent). In 2017, 247 of the 624 fatal crashes were drivers over age 50. She said 32 states and territories had approved the AARP 4-hour course length. Participation in the 8-hour class had declined as the drivers traveled to Nebraska, Colorado and Missouri to participate in the 4-hour curriculum. This caused Kansas drivers to miss out on state specific laws. In addition, sitting in a classroom for 8 hours might prove difficult for older drivers (Attachment 4)
Shawn Steward, AAA-Kansas, provided written testimony in support of the bill. He said AAA would prefer a 6-hour course, however, they would support a 4-hour course. He proposed the bill be revised so that a specific safety organization was not named in the statute, but instead broader references were made to nationally-recognized driving training curriculum or safety organization (Attachment 5).
Chairperson Vickrey asked if there were any opponents or neutral parties that wanted to testify. There were none.
He asked Revisor Ma about the amendment. She said they had already checked with the Department of Insurance and the department had no objection to being the approving entity.
The chairperson opened the meeting for discussion.
The members discussed: selection of the Insurance Department as the approving entity, the requirement that the course be taken every three years to qualify for the insurance discount, the certificate used to verify completion of the course, the surrounding states using the 4-hour course, and whether there were vehicle accident statistics that showed the results of 4-hour versus the 8-hour course.
Chairperson Vickrey closed the hearing on HB 2083.
