Parents who have teens who drive know how scary it is when their kids are in charge. The Alabama Legislature is working on a bill that would let parents know if their child gets a traffic ticket.
The bill was passed by the House of Representatives on Thursday. It is now on its way to the state Senate.
The bill comes from a terrible event that took two lives.
April Vafeas said, “My oldest son. Tyler, who we call T.J., died in a car accident on June 18, 2022.”
She said T.J. died right away. Lexie, his girlfriend, died four days after that.
After losing her son, Vafeas worked to change the rule. She found out after he died that he had three tickets from when he was a teen for not wearing a seat belt.
Vafeas wrote on Facebook about it. State Rep. Jamie Kiel, who she went to high school with, saw the post and got in touch. This is how the idea for a new law came about.
Kiel said, “It lets parents know if their child gets a traffic ticket.”
They say it’s a bill for family rights.
“A parent should know if their child is using their insurance to drive your car, and they should also know if their child has a traffic ticket,” he said. “Kids have their own money, funds, and jobs sometimes.” You might never know if they paid for it or were able to go to traffic court and driving school.
Vafeas talks about how she wished she had known that T.J. got three tickets. She and Kiel want this bill to make the world a better place.
Kiel said, “I hope that some kid will wear a seat belt or drive more slowly because their parent knows what they’re doing on the road.”
“I don’t know if it would have made a difference for my family, but I would have liked the chance to talk to him about it before it was too late,” Vafeas said.
Vafeas was in Austin at the time the bill was signed into law.
Kiel is sure that it will get through the Senate and be signed by the governor.
