Should The Drivers License Age Be Raised

Essay, Research Paper

Should the age to receive a driver’s license be raised and, if not, should graduated licensing be instituted. This is a growing question across America as well as other countries around our globe. The percentage of teenage accidents involving automobiles is on a constant rise. Whether caused by the lack of experience or under the influence of alcohol, death has become all too common among teen motorists. This problem is not going to go away by itself; action needs to be taken. The state must raise the age requirement to receive a license or institute graduated licensing because teens are not mature enough to handle the dangerous responsibilities of driving.

We allow teens to get their licenses at an earlier age than in most countries, and little driving experience typically is required before licenses are issued. This is not very smart on our part considering that according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 16 year olds have the highest percentage of crashes-involving speeding, the highest percentage of single vehicle crashes, the highest percentage of crashes with driver error, and the highest vehicle occupancy (NHTSA ). Compared with older drivers, teenagers as a group are more willing to take risks and less likely to use safety belts. Many experts blame the young teens immaturity, impulsiveness, and lack of proper training and experience as contributing factors to the high rate of teen involved accidents. Teens don’t need to be victims of there driving inexperience. During 1975-96 the death rate among 16 year-old drivers was trending upward. The rate increased from 19 per 100,000 in 1975 to 35 per 100,000 in 1996, and this increase occurred in both males and females. The number of 16 year old driver deaths increased about 50 percent during 1975-96 (from 362 to 547 annually) while deaths among 17-19 year olds declined 27 percent (CNN ). “ Any way you look at it, 16 year-old drivers represent a growing problem,” adds Allen Williams, senior vice president of the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety (CNN). Accidents that involve 16 year-old drivers are not like those involving older drivers. For one thing, 16 year-old get in trouble trying to handle unusual driving situations, even small emergencies. More often than when older people drive, such situation turn into disasters. Eighty-two percent of all 16 year old-drivers in fatal crashes during 1996 made at least one driving error that contributed to the crash. This compares with 68 percent of drivers 17-19 years old and 52 percent of drivers 25-49 years old (CNN).

Training and educating programs can help teens learn driving skills, but these programs do not produce safer drivers. The only thing that’s taught in driver education is how to drive legally and not responsibly. It’s often not poor skills that cause the crashes in the first place. Its teenagers’ attitudes. A vast majority of teens are thrill seekers, thinking they are bullet proof and invincible. “Thus the potential for death and destruction is great”(Grant14). Teens naturally tend to rebel against adult standards and regulations. Peer pressure influences teenagers much more than advice given by an adult. Today’s teachers have either forgotten or they ignore the fact that 16 year-old drivers show off as soon as they get in the car with their friends. Teen passengers can be a big distraction encouraging the driver to tailgate or pass inappropriately, increasing the chance of a crash.

Raising the age to receive your driver license would be a giant leap in the direction of reducing the number of accidents, not to mention fatalities caused by immature teenage drivers. “The percentage of accidents involving teenagers drops each year form age 16 to 19”(CNN). The only sure way to lower teenage involved accidents, not to mention fatalities, is to raise the legal driving age. Teens are restricted from voting and purchasing tobacco until they reach the age of 18 years old and teens are not aloud to purchase alcohol in the United States until they are 21 years old. These restrictions are mandated because Americans reason that teens are not mature enough to make responsible decisions. Shouldn’t this reasoning apply also to driving a one ton automobile 60 and 70 miles an hour plus down a highway. Sixteen-year-old teens need time to mature before driving a loaded gun down our neighborhoods.

Teenagers are not only inexperienced drivers, they’re inexperienced drinkers too. And when adding the two together it makes a deadly combination. “Drinking and driving is the most often committed violent crime in the nation and a significant cause of death among our youth”(Golden 106). One strategy to deter teenagers from drinking and driving is the Zero Tolerance Law, also know as the “ Use it and loose” law. This law takes away the privilege of driving from anyone under the age of 21 caught drinking and driving. Parents can play a major role in reducing teen drinking and driving by offering a way out. They can sit down with their teenager and discuss with them the option of calling home for a ride when they or whoever else in the group driving has been drinking. The parent must do his or her part though, by promising to not discuss the matter until everyone has calmed down. If Ryan Sanders would have called home for a ride he would still be alive today. Ryan was only 18 and he had his whole life ahead of him. He had