AUGUSTA, Maine — The bill that has become known as “Taylor’s Law” will go into law after a 114-32 vote Thursday in the House of Representatives that overrode a veto of the bill by Gov. Paul LePage.
The House’s action follows a 23-11 vote in the Senate on Wednesday that also rebuffed the governor’s veto. That means the bill will go into law 90 days after the Legislature’s adjournment.
“I just believe that this is a good opportunity for parents to add an option to send a message to young drivers that they should be careful,” said Rep. Richard Campbell, R-Orrington, during brief debate Thursday in the House.
Taylor’s Law, LD 737, seeks to strengthen the enforcement of an existing law that bars drivers with intermediate licenses from carrying passengers except under certain circumstances. The bill, sponsored by Sen. Kimberley Rosen, R-Bucksport, would provide decals that could be posted on vehicles of intermediate drivers.
The bill is named after 15-year-old Taylor Darveau of Bucksport, who died in an October 2013 car crash in a vehicle being driven by a 16-year-old with an intermediate license. Maine law bars drivers with intermediate licenses from carrying passengers who are not immediate family members unless an experienced driver also is on board.
“We’re very pleased with the House’s decision,” Corey Darveau, Taylor’s dad, said Thursday just after he was notified the bill would become law 90 days after this legislative session adjourns. “We firmly believe that it has merit, and we firmly believe it will help people. We’ve heard from people already that this has saved some children’s lives.”
The stickers proposed in Taylor’s Law, which would be free of charge, would serve as notices to other drivers, families and law enforcement officers that an intermediate driver is behind the wheel. The original version of the bill would have made the decals mandatory. It was amended in the committee process to make the decals voluntary.
LePage vetoed the bill because, he said, the stickers could identify young drivers to predators, but Taylor’s parents said they do not agree. A similar decal law has been mandatory in New Jersey for three years, they said, during which time teen crash fatalities have declined by more than a third.
“For those who are concerned about identifying their child to criminals, that’s why it’s voluntary,” Corey Darveau said. “If it’s something that really concerns you deeply, you don’t have to do this. But if you feel this effort has merit and will help you protect your child in some capacity, it’s there.”
Rep. Christine Powers, D-Naples, is a member of the Transportation Committee, which unanimously recommended passage of the bill.
“When my daughter first received her Maine driver’s license, it was an intermediate license with important restrictions that teenagers often ignore,” said Powers in a written statement. “I would have embraced the choice to place a decal that Taylor’s Law provides on my daughter’s car to remind her and her friends of the restrictions to that license.”
Now that the law is enacted, the secretary of state’s office will develop the exact appearance of the decal.
Corey and Christina Darveau said they would have liked the bill to be mandatory, but having it be voluntary is better than no law at all.
“As the bill got watered down, we didn’t feel defeated,” Christina Darveau said. “All the media coverage brought awareness.”
She said she heard from some parents who weren’t aware that intermediate drivers are generally not allowed to carry passengers. And over the year and a half her family has worked to educate people about the issue and to create and distribute “T.A.Y.L.O.R. Tags,” the pink decals that identify intermediate drivers, they believe they have helped raise awareness and save lives. One mother from the Biddeford area contacted the Darveaus to say that her daughter chose not to get into a car because of the pink sticker on the back window, even though the teenage driver minimized its message.
“An hour later, the driver totaled her vehicle on the passenger side,” Christina Darveau said. “The parent said, ‘Your angel saved our daughter. We wanted to let you know you’ve already saved one life.’”
