Bill would allow 14-year-old drivers in Nevada’s largest counties

Teenagers as young as 14 may soon be behind the wheel on Nevada’s busiest roads on their way to school, if a bill proposed by Sparks Republican Assemblywoman Alexis Hansen becomes law.

Currently in Nevada, children as young as 14 years old are allowed to get a restricted drivers license that allows them to drive back and forth to school, but only in counties with fewer than 55,000 residents, or towns with fewer than 25,000 people.

But under Assembly Bill 213, pupils of charter schools that don’t provide private or public transportation to their campuses would be able to get a restricted license, regardless of the size of the county where the school is located.

That means children as young as 14 years old could be driving to their charter school, even in large counties such as Clark and Washoe.

The bill was set for a hearing in the Assembly’s Growth and Infrastructure Committee.

Although Hansen is from Sparks, three of the bill’s co-sponsors are from Las Vegas, and drive Southern Nevada’s often-crowded roads.

They are Assemblyman Chris Edwards, R-Las Vegas; Assemblyman Glen Leavitt, R-Boulder City; and state Sen. Keith Pickard, R-Henderson.