| The Dangers of Drunk Driving Did you know that when you drive under the influence the likelihood of getting into an accident is 1.4 times more probable than if you did not? The Nation Highway Traffic Safety Administration states that 60 percent of all teen deaths in car accidents are alcohol related. Teens often abuse the power of alcohol resulting in a dangerous situation like DUI. The dangers of drinking and driving can ruin your life forever and can result in fatal crashes where you or others can be killed. Drunk driving is the act of operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol.
More so, a teenagers body is not matured enough mentally, nor physically, to execute decisions that hold another person’s life, or freedom at stake. In greater depth, if eighteen year olds could buy alcohol, they would be driving their underage friends around at wee hours of the night. Thus, risking them curfew tickets, possibly even letting an unlicensed, underage driver, be enabled to drive his friends around and put them at a greater risk, just because the designated driver was too intoxicated. Lastly, if some grown-ups cannot even drive, or function under the influence, how could a teenager manage? Secondly, teenagers at the age of eighteen have a lot of unfamiliar responsibility coming their
Others may argue that lowering the drinking age could produce negative results. There would be an increase in teenage drunk driving, which could lead to an increase in alcohol related car accidents amongst teenagers. Adults are more responsible and mature mentally at the age of 21 rather than the age of 18. High school students would be exposed to more alcohol, which could result in even more underage drinking. Consuming alcohol at a young age could damage a teenager’s body badly.
When a teen gets to that age all they think about is driving, but when they turn that age parents just begin to worry. “Adrian Lund, president of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, a research group funded by the auto insurance industry, acknowledged the idea is "a tough sell," but noted that car crashes are the leading cause of death among teenagers” (Irvine). That is a big statistic to ignore. Pennsylvania had 242 deaths which involved a teenage driver in 2008, third among all 50 states behind that of Texas, 650 deaths, and Florida with 516 deaths (California DMV). Teenagers are reckless and we must do everything reasonable to prevent deaths.
The public complain that there’s too many drivers on the road and lowering the law to 16 would be chaos. If the driving age was to be lowered to 16 the government said the limit would be 80kmh (50mph). There are various pro’s and con’s surrounding the argument about people taking a test at the age of 70 and over. As you get old your body starts to get weaker and your senses start to determinate and your reactions won’t be as fast, this could cause accidents on the road as they could take longer to brake in an emergency and it would be harder to see long distances if you have weak eye sight. Old people who drive would be happy if that was the case they could argue that they have more experience on the road than any other drivers, on the other hand the roads are really busy these days and the amount of accidents on the roads in 1 year is ridiculous.
Raise the driving age Do you know that statistics show that car wrecks are the top killer of teenagers? The mininum driving age should be raised to 17 everywhere because too many teens are killed in car accidents, they are not responsble, and they abuse their driving privileges. Too many teens are killed in car accidents. Young teenagers are always pileing their friends in the car with them. The risk of a teen getting into a wreck increases by 44 percent with one teenage passenger and quadruples with 3 or more passengers.
Even today, one in three people will be involved in an alcohol-related crash in their lifetime. Our children share the road with an estimated 2 million drivers who have had three or more prior drunk driving offenses (MADD). There should never be a question about refraining from driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs. You not only put your life at risk but you risk the lives of others. What if you witness a friend that has been drinking and/or doing drugs attempting to get behind the wheel of a car would you let him or her or would you do everything in your power to stop him or her?
When this is done it increases the chances of them harming themselves and others if too much alcohol has been consumed before operating a vehicle. The problem that we find with this argument is that this is a irresponsible choice made more by drivers above the age 21 than those under the age of 21. Based on information I collected from the 2010 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, the rate of drunk driving amongst people between the ages of 21 to 25 was at 23.4%
Moreover, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration claims that since establishing the drinking age of 21 in 1975, the number of car fatalities among 18-20 year old drivers in the United States decreased by 13% (SFGate). The medical irresponsibility of allowing teenagers to drink alcohol on a legal basis is also obvious to those who have at least a basic knowledge in biology. Consuming alcohol on a regular basis can negatively affect the development of an individual’s brain’s frontal lobes, which are responsible for emotional regulation, as well as for planning and organization (ProCon.org). Underage individuals who consume alcohol put themselves at more risks of addiction, decreased
Have you ever been in a car accident? Recent studies have shown that the fatal crash rate for 16-17 year olds has a lower rate than the 18-19 year olds. The fatality rate for teenager as a whole, has been decreased by about 30% ever since in the mid 1990’s, the requirement of having a certain number of hours behind the wheel has been enforced in almost every state in the U.S. Some people have brought up the suggestion of pushing back driving ages. That is a terrible idea because although they’re the ones getting into them, it’s not just the minors fault.