WE'VE been concentrating on highway safety this week, as we contemplate the frightening statistics about motor vehicle crashes detailed in a two-part series by Mar-Vic Cagurangan featured in the Variety on Tuesday and Wednesday. Our rate of crashes is more than twice as high as in the U.S. mainland.

Now acting Gov. Ray Tenorio has signed into law a bill, authored by Sen. Adolfo Palacios, which will require drivers with bad records to take a driver safety course before they can get their license reinstated. It’s become Public Law 31-216.

The new law says anyone who receives three separate convictions involving moving violations in any 12-month period must, in effect, go back to driver training school. According to a news release from the senator’s office, the new law recognizes that a person’s attainment of a Guam Driver’s License is “an acknowledgement of his or her ability to drive the type of motor vehicle which he or she is licensed to operate.” That may seem obvious, but just about anyone who drives can attest there are some pretty marginal drivers out there who do not demonstrate much ability to drive safely.

“The government of Guam should not be satisfied with just collecting fines from drivers who violate our island’s driving laws,” says Sen. Palacios, a former police officer himself. “It is equally, if not more important, that these same drivers be required to complete a program in driver safety ensuring the safe movement of all who use our public roadways. No amount of inconvenience can overcome the value of a human life, and this law takes a common sense approach to keeping our streets safe.”

We commend Sen. Palacios for this new law, as well as the other members of the 31st Guam Legislature who have authored, voted on and passed at least a half-dozen laws this session intended to improve safety on our roads. “We have adequate road signs,” says Palacios, the chair of the committee on public safety. “We don’t have bad roads, we only have drivers with bad habits.”

Such as the character who barreled into a police car in the wee hours yesterday, totaling both the patrol car and his own vehicle. He’s lucky he didn’t kill himself, or anybody else. He refused, we were told, to take a sobriety test, which should cost him his license. And in his case, he shouldn’t be allowed back behind the wheel again at all, safety course notwithstanding. He has demonstrated that he lacks the judgment to operate a motor vehicle.