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US to allow teens to drive semi-trucks in test apprenticeship program
FILE - Tractor-trailer trucks carrying goods along I-74 during the COVID-19 pandemic on May 4, 2020, in Veedersburg, Indiana. (Photo by David Allio/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) DETROIT - The federal government is moving forward with a plan to let teenagers drive big rigs from state to state in a test program.Currently, truckers who cross state lines must be at least 21 years old, but an apprenticeship program required by Congress to help ease supply chain backlogs would let 18-to-20-year-old truckers drive outside their home states.The pilot program, detailed Thursday in a proposed regulation from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, would screen the teens, barring any with driving-while-impaired violations or traffic tickets for causing a crash.But safety advocates say the program runs counter to data showing that younger drivers get in more crashes than older ones.