From the ages of 16-18 years old, vehicle accidents are the leading cause of death, even more so than suicide, cancer, and other types of accidents. Many people are questioning whether the driving age should be raised, due to the growing number of automobile accidents involving teenagers. Recently, many states have started focusing on giving teenagers more practice behind the wheel before they are granted unrestricted licenses. A teenager’s lack of experience, and risk taking behavior when driving, puts them at a heightened risk for crashing; the roads would be safer if the driving age was raised.
The eight main causes of teen crashes are driver inexperience, driving with passengers, night time driving, failing to wear a seatbelt, distracted driving, drowsy driving, reckless driving, and impaired driving. Most state laws restrict the number of passengers that can ride in a car driven by a teen. Having additional passengers, especially passengers who are not directly related to the driver, distract an inexperienced teen driver who should be focused only on the road, increasing the likelihood of a crash. According to Feiler, “Adding one non-family passenger to a teenagers car increases the rate of crashes by 44 percent” (nytimes). When driving with friends, teens like to listen to loud music, hold conversations, and drive at a faster speed. With these factors playing a role in their driving, it increases a teens chances of getting into an accident and injuring themselves, their passengers, and others on the road. Another leading cause of fatal crashes is teen drinking. Even though the legal drinking age is 21, that does not stop many teens from drinking throughout their high school and college years. Findings indicate that in 2016, “58 percent of drivers, aged fifteen to twenty, who were in fatal crashes after drinking and driving were not wearing a seatbelt”(CDC). While under the influence, teens may think that they can still handle the responsibility of driving because they “didn’t drink that much”. Seat belts reduce crash related injuries by half, but teens are the least likey out of any other age group to wear a seat belt. Driving allows teens to start gradually gaining independence, but sometimes with this new found freedom they do not always make the smartest decisions regarding safety. They may think they are indestructible, and that seatbelts are not needed. They may even have a false notion that they have the right to choose whether or not to buckle up. If the driving age were raised, people operating the vehicle would be more mature, responsible, and more likely to think through their actions.
Distracted and drowsy driving play a major role in the percentage of teen crashes. The stress of school, sports, clubs, and jobs contribute to the busy day a teen lives. Juggling all of these activities is very time consuming leaving them without much time for one thing –sleep. In order to get as much sleep as possible, “many teens may try to use their driving time to eat their morning breakfast or drink coffee, they may even try to apply makeup” (NHTSA). In addition, drowsy driving can affect a driver’s alertness, reaction time, judgement, attention, and decision-making capabilities. Along with drowsy driving, distracted driving is a significant factor in teen crashes. Despite the fact that it is illegal to be on a mobile device while driving, it still plays a major role in distracted driving. Hearing a notification come through or seeing a phone light up with a text is too tempting for most teenagers to ignore. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s research shows that “dialing a phone number while driving increases your teen’s risk of crashing by six times, and texting while driving increases the risk by 23 times”. In this generation, teens phones are attached to their hip, and they immediately want to answer a snapchat or text message, this takes a teen’s focus off the task of driving, and significantly reduces their ability to react to a roadway hazard, incident, etc. Many parents agree that ensuring their child’s safety, along with the safety of others, surpasses any “inconvenience” it would be to drive a teen around for one or more years. Having the driving age increased will not only prevent teenagers from trying to multitask while driving, but it will get the most dangerous drivers off the road.
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Earning a driver’s license is an important milestone in a teenager’s life, but it is teens who have the worst driving performance. According to the Office of Adolescent Health, “Today, teenagers make up only thirteen percent of the population, but twenty percent of fatal crashes are caused when a teen driver is involved” (HHS.gov). Teens are are more likely to underestimate dangerous situations because of having less experience behind the wheel compared to someone who has been driving for many years. Also, it is harder for them to recognize hazardous situations which lead to critical decision errors and result in serious crashes: “In 2016, 2,433 teens in the United States ages 16–19 were killed and 292,742 were treated in emergency departments for injuries suffered in motor vehicle crashes. That means that six teens ages 16–19 died every day due to motor vehicle crashes and hundreds more were injured” (CDC). With the numbers increasing every year, more and more encourage the driving age to be raised to eighteen. Some even believe it should be raised to twenty-one in order to save numerous lives. Adolescent drivers have a higher rate of fatal crashes, primarily because of their immaturity, lack of skills, and inexperience. Teenagers are not perfect; they speed, they make mistakes, and they get distracted easily – especially when friends are present. We could reduce the possibility of accidents by giving teens an increased amount of time behind the wheel with adult supervision. Instead of getting a permit at fifteen, the requirements could be changed to being allowed to obtain a permit at age sixteen. Teens could then be allowed to drive under the watch of an adult for at least two years, and then be given the opportunity to acquire a license at the age of eighteen with some restrictions.
Many people that are in the position to raise the driving age have refused to do so because it would be an inconvenience and “teens should not be punished for the mistakes of others” (Feiler), but with teenagers being some of the most dangerous drivers, they need to have more practice and gain more maturity before they are given the right to operate a motor vehicle. Studies have shown that “Novice teen drivers are twice as likely as adult drivers to be in a fatal crash. Despite a 46-percent decline in driver fatalities of 15- to 18-year-olds between 2007 and 2016, teens are still significantly overrepresented in fatal crashes”(NHTSA). It might be a slight aggravation to some parents, but driving their teenager around would at least keep them from worrying every time their child got behind a steering wheel. Teenager’s immaturity and inexperience are primary factors contributing to these deadly crashes. These factors can lead to high-risk behavior behind the wheel due to driving at nighttime, driving after drinking alcohol, and being distracted by passengers or mobile devices. The NHTSA claims, “Teen drivers are involved in vehicle crashes not because they are uninformed about the basic rules of the road or safe driving practices; rather, studies show teens are involved in crashes as a result of inexperience and risk-taking”. Teens are given unlimited resources through websites, programs(drivers ed), and even their parents. Even with being taught the rules of the road, when faced with a problem, some panic when alone because they do not have guidance, and some may just be reckless. With time comes maturity, and that would be a major benefit to the safety of everyone on the road. Yes, it may be an annoyance for a while, to both teenagers and parents, but the people with power to raise the driving age should come to the realization that the few complaints they would receive, is not worth the thousands of lives lost each year at the hands of teen drivers.
Driving is a complex skill. It needs to be practiced and taught well in order to master it. The need for skill-building and driving supervision for new drivers are the building blocks for the driving system. Enforcing certain rules will limit driving under high-risk conditions for newly licensed drivers, and will require greater participation of parents as their teens learn to drive. Therefore, people should take the raising of the driving age into consideration, to help ensure safer roads. Teens need to gain more knowledge and experience behind the wheel before they are set free to control a vehicle on their own. Parents spend years protecting their children from all sorts of dangers, on the road and off. A teen may consider obtaining a driver’s license as a step toward freedom, but with their safety in mind, parents might not be sure their teen is ready for the road. One thing is for sure, teens are not ready to have the same level of driving responsibility as adults and need to be more mature before they are granted the privilege of driving.
