Many teenage drivers are not as responsible as they should be out on the road which is why the driving age should be raised to 18 years old. Teenagers are not mature or responsible enough to drive at such an early age. A teenagers brain is only beginning to develop. Most teenagers do not mature until or after the age of 18. Tim Hollister, lawyer and father of a
“Traffic deaths from drunken driving have fallen steadily, with those involving teenagers 16 to 19 declining by 39.1 percent from 1982 to 1990, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)”. (Clark, 1992). Even though drinking and driving is a crime thousands of teens continue to get behind the wheel and kill thousands of innocent people in alcohol related crashes every year. There are drunken accidents because teens don’t take drinking and driving seriously. Teens just want to feel the pleasure and they want to feel good but don’t think about the other people or even there selves that they can kill on the road.
Texting while driving has been banned for all drivers, while any use of a cell phone has been banned for anyone under the age of eighteen. (Texting While Driving) What kind of dim-wit wrote this law? Adult drivers can be distracted just as much as teenage drivers. Studies estimate that distractions caused by cell phone use while driving result in roughly 2600 fatalities and 330,000 injuries each year in the United States. (Noder) This number could be much higher because it is difficult to prove cell phone usage without reviewing a billing
All of this has been gathered from the US News World Report News. Now the real problem comes with teens and not having enough time behind the wheel. All this leads to them being unsafe about themselves while driving. * 4th Article As seen in the Graph you can tell the many violations that teens are more likely to pass through their driving years. It goes from highest percentage violation to lowest.
There are many people who think the driving age should be raised to 21, they say that people who start driving at 21 are less likely to be involved in crashes. That may be true. But if you stop teens from getting their driver licence until they turn 21 it would cause huge problems with our everyday lives. Their will be teenagers who cant go anywhere. Teens who have jobs wont be able to drive to work, they will have to rely public transportation and their family and friends.
This bad habit does not help the young kids that ride in the car with their parents because the majority of parents either text or talk on the phone while driving with their children in the vehicle. People often go through a drive-thru on their lunch break because it’s quick and simple. What people do not realize is that eating while driving is also a dangerous habit to have while driving. Eating while driving is the worst form of distraction for a driver. A study done by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration states that drivers who eat while they drive increases the odds of having an accident by almost 80%.
Hundreds of teenagers and adults across the nation reach for their phones and decide to text while driving. They are making the decision that at that moment a text message is more important than their lives A texting driver is 23 times more likely to get in a crash where as a drunk driver is 13 times more likely to get into a crash. Texting while driving delays reaction time, increases risk of serious injury, and brain power is decreased by 40 percent. Something as simple as a text message can decrease your reaction time. Laboratory simulation studies generally concur that using a cell phone does slow reaction times and degrades tracking abilities.
That is not to mention the number of crimes/deaths that are prevented because the age is so high. Alcohol-related incidents are still the number one cause of death among teenagers. 38% are caused by car accidents, 32% are caused by homicides, and 6% are the result of suicides (Schwartz 4). Research also states that the brain doesn’t fully develop until the mid-twenty’s. The lobes in the brain that go through the most development are the frontal lobes, which are essential for decision making, impulse control, and language (4).
Their high crash rates per 100,000 miles driven are matched only by drivers age 85+ (Janke, Masten, McKenzie, Gebers, & Kelsey, 2003). The over involvement of teenagers in crashes is not unique to California; it is a problem nationwide and worldwide (Twisk, 1996; Williams, 1996). In fact, traffic crashes are the leading cause of death for teenagers across the United States (Foss & Goodwin, 2003; Jonah, 1986; Mayhew & Simpson, 1999; Shope & Molnar, 2003). High teen crash risk is due to a number of factors, including an obvious fundamental lack of driving skill. However, contrary to what one might think, the evidence suggests that poor vehicle control skills account for only 10% of novice driver crashes; the remaining 90% is accounted for by factors such as inexperience, immaturity, inaccurate risk perception, overestimation of driving skills, and risk taking (Edwards, 2001).
Push for P-plates until 25 Forcing young drivers to remain on probationary licenses until the age of 25 would cut Victoria's road toll, says the state's top traffic police officer. Under the move, young adults would have to drive with a zero blood alcohol level for an extra three years, or for the first seven years of solo driving. Assistant Commissioner Robert Hill, who wants the community to consider making the change, said 40 per cent of people aged 20 to 25 who were killed or injured on Victorian roads every year were victims of drink-driving. Mr. Hill said medical research showed that the brain did not develop fully until the mid-to-late 20s, particularly the part that controlled decision-making. ''What I'm advocating is a community