Category: Driving Age

Research shows that the crash rate of drivers aged 16-17 years is nearly double than that of drivers aged 18-19, which is why the legal age for driving is 18 and not 16. Some of the important reasons why the driving age should not be reduced to 16 are to do with accidents, lack of maturity, and due to irresponsibility.

One of the main reasons why people aged 16 should not be allowed to drive is because the rate of accidents occurring is too high at this age. A huge number of car crashes and accidents occur on the roads every year because the emotional growth of people is unstable at this age. At the age of 16, you are not considering what must be done. Accidents can occur either due to their loss of concentration or because people at that age have more burdens from school as well. Also, people of that age are not emotionally stable and fail to think about the results that can come because of their actions. They can also be wild and stubborn. People at this age have higher crash rates than any other age.

Another reason is immaturity. People aged 16 are not mature enough to drive. The ability to make decisions has not been developed in them yet. People at this age are more likely to take risks compared to adults. They can be irresponsible at times. Only because they are excited to drive, they start to speed up, distracted by some things, they can put not only their own but also other people’s lives in danger too. They need extra experience before they think they are ready to drive.

The third reason is Irresponsibility. People at this age are careless and can also break the traffic and many other rules when they are not in their senses. If given independence, they can go anywhere at any time. There have been many cases where people are killed just because of the irresponsibility of teenagers. By not allowing them to drive at this age, we are giving them a chance to be more physically active. For suppose if the person is too healthy or obese, he can walk and ride a bicycle, if he wants to go outside of the house. The important thing is to be safe and live better.

There are many reasons why people at the age of 16 should not be allowed to drive at such early age. The truth is they should think about the outcomes that can occur because of their unconsciousness. Effects that can occur because of their irresponsibility and immaturity can be high and miserable for every person involved.

I am for lowering the age to drive because I learned to drive at the age of 12 in Mexico. I began at the age of 9 learning basic steering then from there on added more to my learning arsenal with signals and how far back to press on the break and when to accelerate. I’m not saying to just drop the age limit and be on your way.

According to the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), “In 2017, 2,364 teens in the United States aged 16-19 were killed, and about 300,000 were treated in emergency departments for injuries suffered in motor vehicle crashes.” From this, one can acknowledge how extremely dangerous teens tend to drive and cause many deaths and serious injuries. The lives of many innocent people and children are also taken away by reckless driving by careless teens. Why should teens under the age of 18 be given the privilege to drive if many don’t acknowledge the lives of people that can be taken away by their ignorant and selfish actions? These deaths and accidents are not going to stop all of a sudden, action must be taken immediately, or else the death toll will never decrease. Therefore, the legal driving age must be raised up to 18 because of the major consequences including the death of themselves and others due to lack of experience, texting while driving, and less maturity in teens.

The huge responsibility a teen takes while driving is sometimes ignored and can instantly and dramatically impact the lives of themselves and/or others. Why should teens under the age of 18 be given the privilege to drive if many don’t acknowledge the lives of people that can be taken away by their ignorant and selfish actions? The use of technology among teens has grown extraordinarily high and will continue to grow. Because of this, teens are often so focused and blinded by their cell phones to even notice a slight change on the road like a red light. The majority of teens also go through neurological development that can cause behavioral issues and problems of not knowing the huge outcomes of a decision very well. In addition to many distractions from cell phones and not fully developed parts of teens’ brains on the road, full preparation for driving is sometimes not taken seriously and many don’t practice enough to understand how to act during a certain situation while driving. With this many risks being taken on the road, many innocent die.

Text, look up, text, look up, text, look up. Teens use their phones to text, they use their phones to call, they use their phones to go on social media, and they use their phones sometimes can kill people or themselves because of the distractions they cause. The huge distractions a phone can sometimes create, even block out some senses in one’s body including hearing and vision creating huge danger on the road. Texting for teens can be extremely distracting, driving requires multitasking and complete awareness on the road at all times, and mixing both together can cause some serious problems. One major problem causing all these deaths on the highway is cell phones. Putting one’s phone away while driving is a necessary requirement, yet most teens still ignore it. Cell phones are very distracting on the road and especially for teens. Teenagers don’t care enough to know that replying to a text can kill someone while driving. For example, “According to a AAA poll, 94 percent of teen drivers acknowledge the dangers of texting and driving, but 35% admitted to doing it anyway.”(2). Knowing that a loved one or oneself could be killed for an unimportant text that could have waited but not caring enough to put the phone down demonstrates carelessness and pure selfishness. The fact that many teens know the consequences and continue to do it shows that they need to wait until they are more aware and responsible enough to make the right decisions and still have some development in some parts of the brain to make reasonable decisions.

Another major problem causing many accidents is the maturity and behaviors of teens. Teens go through a complex cycle of behavioral development which can cause problems while on the road. With a brain that is in the process of lots of growth in certain areas of the brain vital to decision-making, it is not fully safe on the road for teens to be driving early. Ronald E Dahl, a Professor of Public Health at UC Berkeley explained that “Many of the primary causes of death and disability in these years—which include crashes, suicide, substance abuse, and other risky behaviors—are related to problems with control of behavior and emotion.” (Dahl 3). During the years of being a teenager, many drastic brain developments occur and cause sways in emotion and sometimes cause behavioral issues. Knowing that teens are always in mood swings and are easily distracted it is a big risk to people’s safety on the road. A lot of the time full preparation for driving isn’t done well before driving and can confuse a teen when a certain situation going on the road occurs causing them to feel unsure of how to react.

Getting a driver’s license takes some time and a long process and because of this, teens tend to speed carelessly through the learning of the rules and through the highway. Getting a full understanding of the rules and acknowledging the consequences if a law is broken must be taken seriously as many lives can be at risk and are held up by one’s actions. In a study done by The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Research Institute, the most common mistakes that lead to accidents due to inexperience with teen drivers are, “Lack of scanning the roadway, driving too fast for conditions, and Distraction by something inside or outside the vehicle.”(6). Many also have trouble and find it challenging to switch lanes and then panic or get very nervous. These observations and/or common mistakes prove that teens need more practice and maturity before getting behind the wheel. Knowing the basic rules is nothing compared to knowing how to control a car in different conditions and it seems that teens can’t even stay off their phones or get distracted too easily. Teens also are involved in so many accidents for example, according to the

In order to keep the highways safe and decrease the death of many innocent people caused by teen drivers in car accidents, the legal driving age must be increased to 18. Having the privilege to drive is sometimes not taken seriously and can create accidents that sometimes end up with the death of someone. Many deaths on the highway are caused by careless teens who text and drive or get distracted by their phones. Some deaths can be linked to the unfinished development of a teen’s brain to process and assess situations as fast as an adult would. Most accidents are caused by inexperienced teen drivers who don’t know how to react fast enough or didn’t have enough practice. Immediate action must be taken by increasing the age to legally drive or else another innocent person and/or people’s lives will be taken away.

It has been statistically proven that teens are the most dangerous and reckless drivers in the country. In 2016, in the United States, over 2000 adolescents between 16 and 19 died and approximately 300,000 were treated in emergency rooms for injuries suffered in vehicle crashes. This means that six adolescents between 16 and 19 died each day due to injuries caused by vehicle crashes. Also, in 2016, young people aged 15 to 19 represented 6.9% of the population of the United States. However, they were responsible for more than 13 billion dollars of the total costs of vehicle crash injuries. Although there are many cases where a teen’s life has been taken away, car crashes are the leading cause of death among teenagers in the United States. There have been many protocols taken to stop teens from being harmed in car crashes, though none have seemed to work. Things such as extra classes and more laws to keep all drivers on the road safe. Fortunately, those crashes are preventable and there are proven effective strategies that can improve the safety of young drivers on the streets.

Teenagers are more likely to underestimate or fail to recognize dangerous situations when compared to older drivers. They are less experienced behind the wheel and will tend to make the worse decision in most situations. This comes from a tendency of being impatient or trying to please fellow passengers in the vehicle. Teenagers are also more likely to make critical decision errors that lead to serious crashes, compared to adults. One writer stated, “Driving is most commonly seen as a privilege that is given to teenagers at eight-teen but at this age, you will most likely be out of high school and ready to start your life at college. At sixteen there are many important things that students have to deal with, such as; driving to school, going to work, running errands, or having to deal with a family emergency. A car always comes in handy and makes daily tasks easier for the entire family. Everyone was a teenager at one point in their lives and they also wanted to drive at an early age” (Gaines). The convenience of a car has left teenagers complacent and makes them believe that they are more entitled, rather than privileged. Likewise, adolescents are more likely to drive at excessive speed and leave a shorter distance between the front of the vehicle and the vehicle ahead, compared to older drivers.

Adults are not too different when comparing the driving skills of teenagers and themselves. There have been many cases where an adult has had the mentality of a teenager and has made a reckless mistake, potentially costing them their life. In 2016, 49% of teenage deaths in vehicle crashes occurred between 3 p.m. and midnight, and 53% occurred on a Friday, Saturday, or Sunday. This is commonly due to teens driving faster and more dangerously since there are fewer vehicles on the road. One student agrees, “There are many opinions on the current legal age for driving in the United States, there are people that want the age increased and there are others that want the age to be decreased. Driving comes with two parts that need to be dealt with; maturity and responsibility. These two are very similar because in order to be mature, you have to have some level of responsibility. Once you are behind the wheel, you have to take two things into consideration, there are scenarios that can happen where your life can be lost or you can take someone else’s life because you are driving recklessly and without care” (Menotti). Although there are teenagers that are neither responsible nor mature, there are some who care about what happens in their lives. Many teenagers learn how to drive with help from their parents or elders; this can lead to teen accident rates decreasing across the United States. There are many reasons why the driving age should be increased, and there are reasons why the driving age should be decreased.

When compared to other age groups, teenagers have seat belt wear rates that are among the lowest. In 2017, only 59% of high school students reported that they always wore a seatbelt when traveling in a vehicle driven by another. Of the adolescents (aged 16 to 19) who died in vehicle crashes in 2016, approximately 48% were not wearing seat belts at the time of the crash. Studies show that seat belts reduce by approximately half serious injuries and deaths related to vehicle crashes. As said by campus police, “It has become a trend to not wear seatbelts to show their friends that they are not scared of their own driving, or that wearing a seatbelt is not what they considered cool. Although there have been many wrecks in not only the rest of the country but in the campus alone, teens still refuse to wear it to preserve their popularity status.” (James). Not only do teenagers like to speed when they drive, but they do so while not wearing their seatbelts. It is most common to find teens with their seatbelts absent when they believe that they do not need them since their destination is not too far. This kind of mentality is the main cause of many accidents and collisions. Teenagers would rather risk their lives and well-being than their pride and ego.

If calculated with respect to all levels of blood alcohol concentration (CAS), the risk of being involved in a vehicle crash is higher for adolescents than for drivers of older ages. Among male drivers aged 15 to 20 who were involved in fatal crashes in 2016, 32% were speeding at the time of the crash and 21% had been drinking alcoholic beverages. In the 2017 National Survey on Risk Behavior in Young People, 16.5% of adolescents reported that, during the previous month, they had traveled with a driver who had been drinking alcoholic beverages. Among the students who drove, 5.5% reported that, during the same period of one month, they had driven after having consumed alcoholic beverages. In 2016, 58% of drivers between the ages of 15 and 20 who died in vehicle crashes after consuming alcoholic beverages and driving, were not wearing a seat belt. Mrs. Shelby, who works at the local DMV, reported that “Teens under the age of 21, who are unsupervised, tend to do things that they are not at the age to do yet. Things such as drinking and/or driving. Some teenagers partake in the activities that their friends are doing so they are not left out and end up causing a lot of trouble. Though there are teens who make terrible decisions, they at least have the responsibility to have a designated driver. Sadly, these designated drivers are typically ones who are not experienced with driving enough to be put in such a predicament.” (Shelby). It is recommended to apply laws on the minimum age to consume alcohol and ‘zero tolerance’ of alcohol in the blood for drivers under 21 years. This is to ensure that there is absolutely no excuse when teens are driving. Any signs of bad driving will simply be because of the driver’s incapability of driving rather than being under the influence of alcohol.

Knowing how to drive is a complex skill and must be practiced to learn it well. The lack of experience and risky behaviors of adolescents with respect to driving places them at greater risk of having vehicle crashes. The need to develop skills and supervise new drivers is the basis of restricted driver’s license programs, which exist in all states of the United States, and in Washington, D.C. GDL programs provide longer periods of practice, limits for drivers who have just received their license to drive in highly risky conditions and require greater parental involvement in the process through which their teenagers learn to drive. Studies indicate that broader GDL programs are associated with reductions between 2617 and 41% in fatal crashes, and between 1619 and 22% in total crashes among 16-year-old drivers. When parents know their state’s GDL laws, they can help make those laws apply and, in effect, help keep their teenagers safe. Making driver’s schools a bit stricter and having the standards a little higher will make sure that drivers have enough training before they are eligible for driving. The use of more programs and stricter laws will help with ensuring that teenagers are more aware of the dangers of reckless driving, and will help them make better decisions when behind the wheel.