Topeka ? Nick Schwager is 15 and has a restricted license that allows him to drive unsupervised to and from school. In his church youth group, Allison Ohnmacht is older and, at 16, has an unrestricted license.

They were visiting the Statehouse from Great Bend on Tuesday and didn’t much like what they heard about a bill being discussed by the House Transportation Committee.

The bill would make teenagers wait longer to obtain a learner’s permit or license. No longer could most 14-year-olds get behind the wheel; a teenager couldn’t get an unrestricted license until six months after turning 16.

Schwager contemplated what it would be like to have his father still drive him to school every day. Ohnmacht didn’t like the thought of being taxied around town by her parents – and doubted her parents would like it much, either.

But when church youth leader Pam Vainer suggests that teenagers would be safe to wait another six months before getting a license, they don’t argue.

“As a youth leader, I have seen two kids die in one year in car accidents and had two teenage sons – who are now adults – and some of the things that they did, I don’t even want to hear about,” said Vainer, director of religious education for Great Bend’s Catholic parish.

The House committee’s discussion about the bill was similarly animated, with some members expressing skepticism that it would accomplish supporters’ goal of making teenagers drive more safely. Rep. Gary Hayzlett, a Lakin Republican, said he might appoint a subcommittee to draft an alternative.

The bill would make Kansas driver’s license laws similar to those in 46 other states, according to AAA. The Senate approved it last year, but the House committee put off action on it for further study.

State law says 14-year-olds can obtain learner’s permits that allow them to drive with an adult in the front seat. The bill would raise the age to, 15 but create a special farm permit for 14-year-olds.

The measure also would prohibit drivers with a learner’s permit from using cell phones or other wireless communications devices while behind the wheel.

Before getting a restricted license at 16, teenagers would have to show – as they do now, when they turn 15 – that they had completed a driver’s ed course and put in 50 hours behind the wheel under adult supervision.

For six months, they couldn’t drive unsupervised from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m., unless they were going to or from work, a school-sponsored event or a religious activity. They also couldn’t have more than one passenger under 21 in the car.