Should Driving Age Be Increased?

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Driving Age Alicia Handley Period 3 Does a 16 year old child truly have enough responsibility and maturity to obtain the right of being behind a wheel, clutching the lives of many in his or her hands? This question is a highly debatable subject among American citizens, and people all across the world. Despite the staggering statistics and the supporters of increasing the legal driving age, I believe that raising the driving age is not a necessary action to take. I think that driving is about experience and not age, and changing the driving age would impair a teenagers and parents freedom. Also, it is impossible to make generalizations about an age groups maturity and mental development, and it isn’t fair to do this. When considering raising the driving age or not, choosing to raise it would not miraculously make the early drivers accidents dramatically decrease. Some support their claims to increase the driving age with staggering statistics about the high percentage of first year driver mortality. For example, in 2008, 12 percent of all drivers involved in fatal crashes were ages 15 to 20. However, I do not think this claim is fair in proving young drivers are more reckless. Regardless of age, driving is about skill and practice. It wouldn’t matter if someone was 16 or 60; their risk of accident would depend on the amount of driving practice they have had, and their abilities as a driver. Everybody has to start somewhere, and I don’t really think that prolonging the driving age would solve a lot of problems, because a driver would have just as much practice when they were younger than they would when they are older. Driving is about repetition and practice, and an older person wouldn’t necessarily be a better driver than a younger person just because of their superior age. By changing the driving age to a higher number, for instance 18, it would

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