Young people's first few years on the road will lead to them taking risks and being unsafe on the road for many reasons. Unsafe road behaviour is either breaking the laws when you are on the road or doing something that you are not supposed to be doing while driving, such as eating or texting. Young people on the road is considered to be ages 16-25. These ages are where people get their Learner's and Provisional licenses and are starting to drive. Also P1 drivers under the age of 25 must not drive with one passenger under 21 between 11pm and 5am. This further discloses that young drivers are from the age of when you start, 16 years old, to 25 years old. Risk taking behaviours on the road include speeding, eating and driving, not wearing a seatbelt …show more content…
Competition among young people is natural and teens always want to “1-up” each other and this is commonly done through breaking road rules. People show off by speeding, doing burnouts, doing donuts and driving with one hand on the wheel and the other out the window. Although these are all ridiculous tactics to gain popularity, people do them and they work. The more young drivers do these risk activities the more danger they get in and the more attention they get, which is another factor why people take risks on the road. Advertising campaign “RTA Youth speeding” creates a barrier between those showing off and those he is showing off to. While speeding and doing donuts and burnouts, his passengers and those he is trying to impress are not impressed. This is seen through their facial expressions are they look quite disgusted at what the driver is doing. At the end of the advertisement the driver realises that it isn’t worth the risk of trying to impress someone and the slogan, “Speeding No one thinks good of you” appears. This slogan refers to the fact that speeding isn't worth trying to impress someone as you risking your life and your passengers lives. Therefore, it is clear that young drivers take risks in order to impress certain
Most if not all teens look forward to several events in their life. One of those events are getting a driver's license. This small piece of plastic is their ticket to freedom. This ticket is more than just freedom to be able to drive their friends around but also freedom from the ritual of their parents having to drive them everywhere and embarrass them in public. Also this is a freedom to the parents as well they may save more on gas from not having to drive their children around. However, some teens are not as safe as they possibly could be if they were to take a few steps to promote good driving habits. This is evident in the article “Teen Driving”, as the author gives the reader teen driving statistics, as well as explanations of programs and steps that can improve teen driving.
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...
According to national teen driving statistics, 16-year-olds, in particular, are 3 (three) times more likely to die in a crash than the average of all drivers, and they have higher crash rates than any other age group. In 2008; 81% of teenage crash deaths were passenger vehicle occupants, 31% of teenage drivers killed had been drinking alcohol, 55% were not buckled up, and 37% of male teenage drivers involved in fatalities were speeding. Teenagers who drink and drive have a greater risk of serious crashes than older drivers with equal blood alcohol concentrations. Teens do not wear seat/safety belts as much as adults. Teens tend to take more risks due to overconfidence in their abilities. These risks include: speeding, tailgating (driving too close to the vehicle in front), running red lights, violating traffic signals and signs, illegal turns, dangerous passing, and failure to yield to pedestrians.
Teens need to be taught that driving is a task that is complex and demanding. Parents know how much experience a young driver has, and they know exactly how inconvenient it is when they have to drive with their teen everywhere while they have their permit. Teens tend to cause most traffic accidents in adults’ eyes. They are not experienced yet, and often fail to pay attention to others on the road. They often think of a car as being some type of toy, but they do not know how powerful it really is. The driver education programs must be strengthened in order to make sure that students really have safer habits, behind the wheel experience, and by having a better understanding of all the laws on the road.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) defines aggressive driving as "the operation of a motor vehicle in a manner that endangers or is likely to endanger persons or property"—a traffic and not a criminal offense like road rage. Examples include speeding or driving too fast for conditions, improper lane changing, tailgating and improper passing. Approximately 6,800,000 crashes occur in the United States each year; a substantial number are estimated to be caused by aggressive driving. 1997 statistics compiled by NHTSA and the American Automobile Association show that almost 13,000 people have been injured or killed since 1990 in crashes caused by aggressive driving. According to a NHTSA survey, more than 60 percent of drivers consider unsafe driving by others, including speeding, a major personal threat to themselves and their families. About 30 percent of respondents said they felt their safety was threatened in the last month, while 67 percent felt this threat during the last year. Weaving, tailgating, distracted drivers, and unsafe lane changes were some of the unsafe behaviors identified. Aggressive drivers are more likely to drink and drive or drive unbelted. Aggressive driving can easily escalate into an incident of road rage. Motorists in all 50 states have killed or injured other motorists for seemingly trivial reasons. Motorists should keep their cool in traffic, be patient and courteous to other drivers, and correct unsafe driving habits that are likely to endanger, antagonize or provoke other motorists. More than half of those surveyed by NHTSA admitted to driving aggressively on occasion. Only 14 percent felt it was "extremely dangerous" to drive 10 miles per hour over the speed limit. 62 percent of those who frequently drive in an unsafe and illegal manner said police for traffic reasons had not stopped them in the past year. The majority of those in the NHTSA survey (52 percent) said it was "very important" to do something about speeding. Ninety-eight percent of respondents thought it "important" that something be done to reduce speeding and unsafe driving. Those surveyed ranked the following countermeasures, in order, as most likely to reduce aggressive and unsafe driving behaviors: (1) more police assigned to traffic control, (2) more frequent ticketing of traffic violations, (3) higher fines, and (4) i...
This essay is to inform you about certain aspects of driving. In this letter I am going to talk about the effect of response time, a safe following distance, how the stopping distance depends on speed, how to decide what to do at a yellow light and how you have to change your speed around a curve. In the next following paragraphs I will explain each of the topics that I have listed and I will give you a better knowledge of how to be a safer driver.
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.
Richard Petty once said “You’ll got home safe, so drive safe, and stay safe.” Being a racing legend, he is an advocate for safe driving to minimise the cases of road crushes that have been on the rise. He double up as the chairman of the Veterans’ Safe Driving Initiative, the initiative is aimed at guiding the veterans returning from deployment on safe driving tips. It is necessarily important since the infrastructure has changed over time. Another initiative is being run in Minnesota where the teens are guided on the important safe driving tips. Study shows that more crushes are likely to occur in teen driving than veteran driving. It is also evident that young drivers are more likely to cause a crush within six months of passing the driving test and young male are worse than the females in the field.
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.
Sixteen year olds have a higher crash rate than drivers of any other age. “ in 2011, teenagers accounted for 10 percent of motor vehicle crash deaths” (Teen Driving Statistics). For this purpose, Many states have begun to raise the age limit by imposing restrictions on sixteen years old drivers. For example, limiting the number of passengers they can carry while driving. “The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety released a report in May 2012 that showed that the risk of 16- or 17-year old drivers being killed in a crash increases with each additional teenage passenger in the vehicle. The risk increases 44 percent with one passenger; it doubles with two passengers, and quadruples with three or more passengers. The study analyzed crash data and the number of miles driven by 16- and 17-year olds” (Teen Driving Statistics). Another example, is that many people believe that teenage drivers have a race boy/girl mentality. This mean that when any teenager gets into a vehicle of any kind they get some type of thrilled or that the driving laws do not accommodate them in any way, shape, or form. They would go drag race ...
Many accidents are caused because teenagers are unaware of driving risks and hazardous situations. One piece of evidence that shows that teenagers need driving experience appears in the following quote, “Teens are more likely than older drivers to underestimate dangerous situations or not be able to recognize hazardous situations,” ("Teen Drivers: Get the Facts"). Teenagers will not have enough driving experience if the driving age is lifted. If teenagers are allowed to drive at sixteen then they will be prepared to drive later on. The longer one waits to drive, the longer it takes for them to become prepared for the risks and hazards of
As expected, most if not all teens will disagree with that. But there are some safe teen drivers that are thrown into the bad teen driving category just because they are a teenager that drives. If there are some good teen drivers, then do all teens really need more drivers education? Samantha Williams is a senior at Winchester Community High School that has an answer to this question. “I do consider myself to be a safe driver. I’m always aware of my surroundings when I’m driving, and I always stay away from any distractions” (Question 1). She is intentionally aware of her surroundings and stays focused while driving. The government should not make more regulations and rules for all teen drivers when there are many teen drivers like Samantha on the roads. There are even some adults that believe not all teen drivers are bad drivers. Gregory explains, “ The teen driving issues are not about age and maturity as they are about making good choices and demonstrating exceptional behavior, whether they start that driving experience at 16, 17, or 18” (1). Many teens and parents seem to think the government has not made the best decisions recently when it comes to
The article Should 16-year-olds drive? written by Ted Gregory, describes that “the front portion of the brain—which includes control of impulses, judgement and decision-making, and the coordination of multi-tasking—matures when 18.” Eighteen is at the beginning of adult life and that is when people grow and develop. According to the possible contributing circumstances listed on crash reports, the Wisconsin Department of Transportation detailed that sixteen year olds are more likely to be reported as “exceeding the speed limit, driving too fast for conditions, failing to yield right-of-way, failing to control, following too close, and driving inattentively.” Sixteen year olds underestimate the dangers of the road. Some people would say that teens now a days are more cautious and aware of dangers of the road due to social media awareness. However, Edgar Snyder, a law firm representing injured people, revealed that 32.8 percent of high school students aged sixteen to seventeen have admitted to texting while driving. Other than the fact that sixteen year olds are not mentally independent, they are also not financially
“Everywhere is walking distance if you have the time,” said by Steven Wright. Teenagers look forward to their sixteenth birthday so they are able to drive. Everyone has felt that feeling where they can hardly wait to get behind the wheel and start driving. Little do people know teen drivers are more likely to die from a car accident than from a homicide, suicide, or cancer combined (Littlefield). They are mostly inexperienced with the road and how to handle distractions. If the age were moved to eighteen teenagers would have more driving experience (Sostarecz). Teenage drivers are extremely eager to drive because of freedom, but they are not aware of the distractions and peer pressure on the road; their experience of driving is not as well as others and statistics show how many deaths are caused due to teenage driving.
“The one thing that unites all human beings, regardless of age, gender, religion, economic status, or ethnic background, is that, deep down inside, we all believe that we are above-average drivers” -Dave Barry, comedian. The number of accidents over the last ten years have drastically increased, drivers are paying less attention to the road itself. Many individuals behind the wheel of a car believe that their driving does not affect the road conditions, however it always will. The driving habits of today are catastrophic due to the reasoning that the driving will affect other lives through reckless or distracted driving, and disobeying traffic laws.