FREY HAILS SAFE RIDES PASSAGE

Hartford, CT – Today, legislation to save the Connecticut Safe Rides program cleared its last legislative hurdle and now heads to Governor M. Jodi Rell for her signature, according to State Rep. John Frey (R-111) of Ridgefield.Without this legislation, which exempts the Safe Rides program from the teen driving laws passed in 2008, Ridgefield’s safe rides program would have been in jeopardy.

“This was brought to my attention by the leadership of the Ridgefield Safe Rides program. They expressed to me how critical exempting youthful drivers was to the continuance of the local program. Ridgefield Safe Rides has been tremendously successful and any threat to it had to be dealt with before this session adjourned,” Frey said. Several years ago, a change had to be made to permit youthful drivers and it passed in the last minutes of the session. That bill was signed in Ridgefield with local Safe Rides participants.

The annual omnibus Department of Motor Vehicles bill SB-1081, included the Safe Rides exemption among many other DMV legislative proposals passed both the House of Representatives and the State Senate unanimously.Rep. Frey said, “Often, well intended legislation carries with it negative unintended consequences. This was one such case. The bill we passed establishes an exemption for teenagers under 18 who, under the 2008 law, would have been unable to volunteer their time and efforts for the Safe Rides program. The Ridgefield Safe Rides program is down 100 legal drivers due to the 2008 law.”

“As a long-time supporter of the Ridgefield Safe Rides program, I happy the legislature was able to make this common sense change,” concluded Rep. Frey.

Rep. John Frey, Minority Whip, serves on the following legislative committees: Finance, Revenue & Bonding, Select Committee on Aging, and Banks.