Driver’s Licensing Began On February 28, 1935, the General
Assembly passed the Uniform Driver’s License Act, placing in the
pockets of authorized drivers the state’s official sanction
putting them behind the wheel. The bill, sponsored by Senator
Carroll Weathers of Wake County, was a response to the fact that
more than 1,000 deaths had occurred on the state’s highways
since the rise of the automobile 30 years earlier. The
automobile age in North Carolina had begun in earnest with the
introduction of the “Buggymobile” in New Bern in 1903 and other
primitive vehicles soon after. The 1935 act defined a motor
vehicle as “any rubber-tired vehicle propelled or drawn by any
power other than muscular.” Aircraft, road rollers, street
sprinklers, ambulances, baggage trucks and agricultural and
industrial tractors were excluded from the licensing
requirement. Then, as now, drivers were required to be at least
16 years of age. Initially no test was required, and only the
word that the applicant was experienced and carefu