My parents gave me my first car for my sixteenth birthday. I was overjoyed by this new found freedom; however, like a large portion of teenagers, I was also terrified of driving. This was mostly because I didn’t receive a lot of experience with my permit, and also because I was afraid of crashing my new car. In the years preceding my sixteenth birthday I had mourned the deaths of several teenaged friends who had died in car crashes. I ended up waiting a full year after I turned sixteen to take my driving test, because I didn’t feel comfortable driving until then, which later paid off when I passed my driving test the first time I took it. In my opinion, all teenagers should do as I did and wait to get their licenses. Though in reality, not all teenagers would agree to wait, so, I believe the legal driving age should be raised to eighteen years of age. With as common as fatal car crashes are, it is no wonder that new drivers are not confident while driving. According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, “A total of 2,524 teenagers ages 13-19 died in motor vehicle crashes in 2013,” (“Teenagers”). Allowing teenagers to start driving at …show more content…
The average person’s brain doesn’t fully mature enough until their early 20s. The developmental stage of the teenage brain causes teens to experience what most would call an invincibility complex. This further explains why teenagers are more likely to take risks, and also explains why death and criminal rates are high among teens compared to other ages (The Teen Brain). According to Dr. Tamara McClintock Greenberg, “… studies suggest that 46% of teens 16-17 report texting while driving” (McClintock). This act has already been proved to be incredibly dangerous by the over one million accidents that happen every year because of texting and driving, so it makes sense that it is also illegal in many
For years fiery debates whether the driving age for teens should be sixteen or eighteen captured the nation. Sixteen year-olds have a legitimate argument for keeping the age where it stands, but statistics show that sixteen year olds are not responsible enough to drive, and that more practice is needed before anyone should get a driver’s license. However, from the looks of it, it seems that legislation is going to make the legal driving age eighteen.
The driving age should stay at 16. Although, not many people think that it should stay at 16, but instead that it should increase. This should not happen because certain responsibilities are given to an 16 year old that involves a car. Changing the driving age to a higher age, could infect a lot of things. Some of them have jobs, younger siblings, or even disabled parents. If we raise the driving age, then who would be able to drive around the teen’s disable parent if no one else is able too. The legal driving age should stay at 16.
I don’t believe raising the driving age by only one year would reduce accidents at all. There’s a possibility the teenager hasn’t even matured yet, and would still be just as likely to be irresponsible on the road as they were merely a year ago. At this young age, most kids driving are more likely to test their limitations on the road and are influenced by their peers to try something daring and fun. They tend to have little concern for the road they share with others. They can also be nervous about driving and may focus only on their performance, rather than also looking out for other dangers the drivers around them may be setting. Furthermore, the decision making parts of their brain are still under development, even well after the teenage years, which is likely to impact their behavior on the road.
Just like the teenage boy that died in the wreck, most young teen drivers think they are invincible and are owners of the road which is all due to lack of maturity. The mind set of young drivers now days is “I’m too young to die”, or “it wont happen to me” and they are so blinded by the immature thinking that it gets them in trouble. Some traits generally linked with the immaturity are: chance taking, testing limits, poor-decision making, overconfidence, speeding, following to closely, and dangerous passing (Williams). When you have youthful age and immature characteristics combined the crash possibility is enlarged. The 15-16 age groups are among the most accident prone of most groups (“Don’t”), so why then would we want them behind the wheel? “Most U.S. states license at age 16, but the minimum age for a regular license is 14 in South Dakota and 15 in five other states including: Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, and South Carolina”, stated Allan F. Williams. Youthful age and immature thinking is part of the reason wh...
What do you think would happen if the state legislature made the minimum driving age 18 instead of 16? The state legislature is considering raising the minimum driving age from 16 to 18. They should keep it at 16 because teenagers need more experience before going away from home, they need the practice of being responsible, and they also might need to be able to get places but if they can’t drive, they can’t go anywhere.
Driving is something people do everyday. Although many people do it well, some do not, that being said the legal age to drive should be raised to twenty one years of age. The driving age should be raised because teens at the ages of fourteen through twenty should not be behind the wheel for the simple fact that they are just too young and too inexperienced to drive, also someone of that age can get more distracted than a person who is twenty-one or older and has had some time to mature and become responsible enough to operate a motor vehicle. “In the United States, 16–19-year-olds have the highest incidence of motor vehicle deaths among licensed drivers and motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death among 15–20-year-olds.” (Haggerty
Teens should be the last group of people to break this law. “Texting while driving makes crashes 23 times more likely”. As drivers become more experienced and older texting while driving increases. For example, “24 percent of 16 year olds said they text and drive, as opposed to the 58 percent of 18 year olds that don’t”. In general teens text much more than adults while driving. As a matter of fact, “82 percent of drivers between the ages of 16 to 24 have admitted to reading a text message while driving”. Not only are teens unexperienced but are trying to pull off the nearly impossible task while driving. Texting while driving is leading cause of death among teenagers passing the death rate of drinking and driving. Studies show that if this trend continues, more than 3,000 teenagers will die next year. For example if a driver sends a 5 second text message while moving 55 mph it is equal to driving a whole football field lengt...
Have you ever wondered if the legal driving age should be lowered? Well, I have, and I think the driving age is already perfect as it is. One reason is because kids might not be mature enough. Another reason why I think this is because they could be too short to reach all the pedals. The last reason kids should not drive cars is because they could not be heavy enough. As you can see, these are my three reasons why I think the legal driving age should not be lowered.
If we were to raise the driving age it would most likely be changed to 18. The best reasons for raising it to 18 would probably be that they are more responsible. “Children are not equipped to handle these vehicles, which are hard for even an experienced, adult driver to handle.” (Ron Shaffer) They have More money because of there jobs and if you go away from home you need a license.
In recent years, the legal driving age has become a topic of heated debate. There are many supporters that advocate for raising the legal driving age to eighteen or twenty-one. However, raising the driving age would cause some major problems. Sixteen should remain the legal driving age in most states and areas because the economic burden would be extremely large and the problems related to young drivers would not be adequately solved by simply rising the legal driving age. This essay will outline the reasons why the legal driving age should not be raised and what some of the better choices are instead.
Even though texting and driving is against the law, men and women of all ages are doing it on a regular basis. Statistically speaking, 23% of car accidents, which was about 1.3 million, involved cell phones in 2011 (“Texting and Driving..”). According to Edgar Snyder and Associates Law Firm out of Western Pennsylvania, “In 2011, 3,331 people were killed and 387,000 people were injured in accidents involving a distracted driver.” Along with those stats, and according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, “texting and driving kills 11 teens each day” (“Texting and Cell Phone..”). These numbers show how fatally dangerous texting and driving can be. As mentioned earlier, it is illegal, so humans shouldn’t be doing it in the first place. However, if someone gets caught, they could be looking at a ticket costing about, 135 dollars, not including the additional base fine, surcharge and the law library fee (“Texting and Driving, Challenges..”). If a person chooses to text and drive and...
In the news article ¨Is 16 Too Young To Drive A Car?¨ Robert Davis explains the science of of legal issues surrounding teen driving. To begin with, Davis points out many support raising the driver age in order to decrease the number of further car crashes involving 16 year olds. The Author Robert Davis also reports that politicians want to avoid inconvenient parents who would have to drive around their unlicenced teens. Also he describes teen drivers error are linked to undeveloped parts of the brain that thinks about the future, controls emotions, and manages designs. In addition the Author Robert Davis “graduated licensing” limit took teens driving priveleges until
Teens only make up seventeen percent of the population today, but almost twenty percent of fatal crashes are due to teenagers behind the wheel. Growing numbers suggest changing the driving age to eighteen and some even believe that changing it to twenty-one may save even more lives. With a sixteen year old behind the wheel, accidents are even more likely to occur when compared to a seventeen year old (Boulard). With so much new technology in today’s society there are more distractions on the road than ever before; therefore the legal driving age should be raised to save more lives. If we do not act quickly, then more lives will be lost.
Engines roaring and cars flying down the highway recklessly, racing to the finish. This is a stereotyped outlook on teen drivers. This however, is not the case. Teens don’t drive to race down the road. They drive for freedom. They drive to get where they need to be on their own. The driving age should not be raised to 18 because it takes away their feeling of freedom, Denies the access to needed transportation, denies experience, It puts additional stress on parents, and they need to be learning the driving skill while they’re young.
How old is it to drive? Most would argue the legal driving age of sixteen seems appropriate for someone to begin taking the wheel, while others say that twenty-one is a more sufficient age. Even though raising or maintaining the driving age at sixteen contains both pros and cons, major facts need to come to consideration if the driving age ever increases. As a teenager driving, I believe that people wanting to raise the driving age do not realize the negative effect that that would cause. For instance, if the age increased, teenagers would lose independence and freedom, parents would have to sacrifice their time and freedom, and even though teenagers die in car crashes every year, it would not decrease the overall number of deaths per year.