Nearly 20,000 Georgia teens were reportedly granted a driver’s license without passing a road test as a result of an executive order aimed at curbing the spread of the coronavirus.
Gov. Brian Kemp last month signed the order that suspended road tests for most drivers in the state seeking their licenses.
“There have been 19,483 teens who upgraded their permit to a provisional driver’s license with the consent of their parent or responsible adult,” Susan Sports, a spokeswoman for the state’s Department of Driver Services, told The New York Times.
“These teens held a permit for a year and a day and complied with all Georgia’s mandatory driver education requirements,” Sports said.
Willa Pevey, a 17-year-old from Tucker, Georgia, was relieved the test was nixed.
“I had been nervous about the driving test — with the parallel parking and all that,” Pevey told CNN. “So I was happy that I didn’t have to do it.”
But there were also some dissenters in the state.
Sarah Casto, a driving instructor, created an online petition calling on Kemp to reverse the order, according to the Times.
“We understand that this is supposed to be temporary, but the ramifications from even a few weeks of unskilled drivers getting their license can be catastrophic,” wrote Castro.