It has shown in statistic, that the highest risk of death for young drivers involved in fatal road crashes occur mostly during night time, particularly near midnight and into the early morning hours and especially during these times on weekends. In the Sunday telegraph, it mentions that “25 per cent of young driver p plater related accidents occur at night”. Where another Wollongong newspaper article has a storyline where a 17yr old p plater was involved in a car accident at midnight caused by speeding, with 4 of his mates in the vehicle, killing all four passengers. The surviving driver was charged with four counts of dangerous driving leading to death. Due to this, the New South Wales government implemented new restrictions on provisional licence, making it illegal for P1 drivers carry more than one underage passenger between 11pm-5am.
A large portion of those accidents happen when one vehicle hits a wall, tree, or even slides off the side of the road, this shows that the cause is reckless driving. Someone showing off for their friend, sending and reading text messages on their phone, or just not paying attention to the road. A lot of teens like to show off when they drive, that's why they end up in a accident. There are many different solutions for this problem, but only a few could be realistic and actually work out. 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.
“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.
Julio Castillo Period 1st AP English Composition/ Language A. (Teen Drivers) | 1st Article | 2nd Article | 3rd Article | 4th Article | 5th Article | Title of Article | Crashes in teen drivers | Texting Political cartoons | Many teen drivers don’t think they are experienced behind the wheel. | Total violations while teens drive. | Pros and cons of teen driving. | Author | State of California department | Adam Sygls | Us News World Report | State of California Department | ModernMom.inc | SummaryOf article | States each state fatality with Texas being the leading deaths and California in second.
At first glance, it seems like a good idea to have the driving age raised to eighteen, but it is not as beneficial as it seems. Nationally, about forty percent of American teen deaths are from motor vehicle crashes, making them a major concern for parents and teens alike, but raising the driving age won’t fix this, and it could actually make this statistic worse. There are good reasons as to why the driving age should not be raised: it is inexperience not young age that causes crashes, parents of minors are allowed to deny their children licenses or permits, and raising the driving age would make it harder to get drivers proper training. It is true that the risk of crashing is higher for the sixteen to eighteen age group than any other. This is the main reason that a lot of people want to have the driving age raised.
An average of 17,000 individuals die each year in drink driving related deaths. The numbers have come down slightly , for example, in 2010 10,228 individuals died from drink driving related fatalities, drink driving continues to be an enormously important public safety issue. What is more, drinking and driving is strongly correlated with youth. After the age of 25, the drink driving rates rapidly decrease. It seems quite plausible that were alcohol to be illegal for those under the age of 18, the 15.1% of 18 to 20 year olds who drink before getting behind the wheel would decrease significantly.
The current P-plate laws are extremely affective in reducing accidents on the road.This is because they deal with many of the dangers p-plate drivers face while driving, including distractions, driving speed, peer pressure and driver safety. To begin with, the current p-plate laws are affective in reducing accidents while driving because they deal with the important issue of distractions. An example of a distraction that is dealt with by the current p-plate laws is mobile phones. Mobile phones cannot be used by p-plate drivers when driving or while the car is moving or stopped but not parked. This helps to stop accidents because it removes distractions from a p-plate driver so they can focus solely on driving.
Rationale Before considering the incidence of the problem and why it is on the rise, it is important to consider why teenagers opt for it in the first place. If lack of awareness is cited as a possible reason, then this is simply not accessible due to the media awareness programs that are aired by social organizations and the related Government departments. One of the major reasons seems to be peer pressure and the resulting need to conform to the standards of society. Drinking can be construed as an escape from reality and this habit combined with drugs is posing a serious problem for the youth of the nation (alcoholalert.com). Statistical significance The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has compiled startling evidence which unearths the gravity of the situation.
Many states began passing legislation either in response to fatal crashes involving texting while driving, or near fatal crashes that involved texting while driving. By the early part of 2010, 21 states had banned texting while driving. De Soto provides numerous statistics that compare drunk driving to texting. The studies were used showed that texting while driving is just as dangerous to public safety as drunk driving. De Soto list several fatal and non-fatal accidents cases from New York to Washington State from texting while driving.
The legal driving age for teenagers and young adults is a hot topic today, and there are many varying and valuable opinions on this issue. While I am not an expert in all the statistics and different factors that go into making this decision, I believe that my position as a teenager is one that should be taken into account, as it is my generation that will be affected by these changes. While there are valid arguments for raising the legal driving age to 21, I believe that leaving the legal driving age at 16 would be the best choice, because age is not the real issue, raising the age will lead to teen dependency, and there are better ways to solve this problem. It is a fact that the leading cause of death for 15 to 24 year olds is auto accidents, and that they are the only group where this is true. However, car crashes are the leading cause of accidental death for anyone over 4 years old!