There are many laws out there that ban texting and drinking while driving to keep people from harm’s way but there are so few people who actually obey the laws. Research shows that drinking while driving & texting while driving are equally harmful because they both impair the driver’s vision, the driver’s reaction time, & the driver’s concentration & vigilance, all skills needed to prevent millions of accidents, deaths, & injuries every year. There’s ample evidence that shows drunk driving fatalities have definitely decreased in the last 40 yrs. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration provides us with some interesting information, which I have converted into a line graph. My visual aid shows the fast decrease in drunk driving fatalities between 1970 & 2012.
Why should 16 year olds not be giving the rights to do that? Many people will argue that younger drivers are more immature and aren’t ready to drive. Most accidents on the road are caused by young drivers due to speeding, drink driving, under the influence of illegal substances, on their phones or being distracted by others in the car, most of the time the driver or any of the passengers don’t have their seatbelt on. Some of the public say that teenagers should be allowed to do driving tests but they can’t do there test until their 17th birthday. The public complain that there’s too many drivers on the road and lowering the law to 16 would be chaos.
Secondly, in the article “May Just Delay Deadly Crashes” by Anahad O’Connor he clearly proves by statistics and percentages that there have been more fatal crashes from 18-19 year olds rather than 16-17 year olds. I think that it is completely unfair to punish the younger group of kids for the older group’s actions. Especially when they’re the ones who have been saving lives by 30%. Finally, everyone thinks that keeping their 16-17 year old kid with an adult the whole time they’re driving will help them get better but it’s actually the opposite. Having an adult who is correcting you right while driving or a.k.a.
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.
According to estimates from the National Safety Council quoted in Current Health Teens, nearly 28% of all vehicle crashes, or about 1.6 million each year, can be linked to talking on the cellphone or texting while driving. Texting while driving affects millions of people each year. Texting while driving doesn’t affect only you, it may affect people who are on the road with you while you’re driving. It may also cause many dangers, but there are also ways you can prevent texting while driving. When texting while driving, the slightest distraction can change your life completely.
What make me question why teens die so often (depending on the severity of the accident) is weren’t they wearing a seatbelt? While it states in the article that “according to NHTSA, only 76 percent of teen drivers routinely use their seatbelts” (Carty, 2011 pg. 5 pp. 10) seems like that would save more lives. However most teens thought isn’t to put that seatbelt on first, it’s to make sure their phone is all charged up, the radios loud or their friends make distractions for them.
Only about 10% of 16 year old drivers that were killed in 2003 were because of alcohol, compared to the 43% of 20 to 49 year old drivers. Instead the accidents are minor things, like speeding, overcorrecting, or losing control when facing an obstacle (Davis). These minor details could easily be fixed with tougher driving courses. But the people against 16 year old drivers will just say that if they change the driving age there won’t have to be tougher driving courses. But don’t we want to challenge our kids in life?
Pro Banning Cell Phones While Driving Every year thousands of people are killed in car accidents, the main cause of those accidents are cell phones. Using a cell phone while driving causes a driver to become distracted and lose their focus. Most accidents occur while texting or talking on the phone. Cell phones should be banned while driving because they are a distraction to the driver; they are the number one cause of accidents, and texting while driving is completely unnecessary. There are many reasons why cell phones are distracting to a driver but the main two are talking and texting.
Most people do not know that driving while overly emotional is an impairment, which makes it all the more scary because driving while emotional is not only dangerous, but it can be fatal. Every person, at one point in our lives, have shed a tear or two, whether they would like to admit it or not. Tears, in regular circumstance, are harmless, but behind the wheel, they can be dangerous. Our eyes cannot always see through the blur that the salty tears cause, and sometimes, it takes more than a second to
Road block 2: Social Responsibility Problem: Driving responsibly Usually this isn’t a problem around our school (it’s a huge problem around Surrey though however, there being car accidents just about every day but that’s another matter) but just recently there was a case where two brothers were killed in a car accident due to the driver being under the influence of alcohol. One of the brothers went to our school and although I never knew him, it is a shame for someone so young to lose his life over something that could have been so easily prevented. How can this be prevented? Most of these are common sense but seeing how there are still so many car accidents involving these today, they cannot be reinstated enough. * Not driving under the influence of alcohol * Car racing is probably not the best choice * Remember to check both ways and go slow at corners to avoid surprise pedestrians crossing the road * Keeping the headlights on while driving at night * Avoid other vehicles, back off and don’t tailgate * Wearing a seatbelt at all times * Making sure the airbags in your car work, they could save your life one day * Mirrors should be adjusted to show everything you need to see behind you * Look carefully when parking in cramped lots to avoid fender benders a) ICBC, road safety speakers and education b) People who often get into car accidents or aren’t confident of their driving skills should get this help as soon as possible online or consult a road safety speaker at ICBC.