The legal driving age in the United States has remained the same for decades, even though new research continues to show how dangerous it is for sixteen year olds to be on the road. A lot of people argue that sixteen year olds should still be allowed to drive because they rely on it to get to school, work, sports, and other responsibilities. Others think raising the driving age will not solve the problem, since the real issue is inexperience rather than age. A study in JAMA Network Open written by Walshe et al. who all have PhDs, found that new drivers who begin at eighteen tend to have more crashes than younger new drivers. This study suggests that increasing the legal driving age alone may not reduce crash risks for teens. However, other safety data shows a different perspective. Research from EBSCO shows that spending more time in supervised driving phases helps reduce crash rates (Hamilton). Teens often overestimate their own driving skills and don’t fully realize how dangerous being on the road can be. Distractions like loud music or friends in the car are more likely to cause crashes, even when thinking they can handle it. By comparison, older teen drivers tend to be more responsible and careful while driving. Delaying the legal driving age to be eighteen allows teens to gain more life experience, and improve decision making in challenging situations. Overall, raising the legal driving age to eighteen combined with proper training would improve safety on the road. Younger teens lack the experience and maturity to drive without an adult.
One major reason the driving age should be raised to eighteen is that younger teens are still developing. In addition, their decision making skills needed for safe driving are not fully developed at such a young age. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, drivers aged sixteen and seventeen are much more likely to speed, drive distracted, and miscalculate basic traffic situations because their self restraint and awareness are not fully matured. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that drivers between sixteen and seventeen have some of the highest crash rates. According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, teen drivers crash more often per mile than adult drivers. The National Safety Council says that younger teens are more likely to take risks and get distracted because their ability to make decisions is still maturing. The CDC also reports that when other teen passengers are in the car, crash risks increase because younger drivers are easily distracted by what their passengers are doing (Risk Factors for Teen Drivers). Additionally, Weast states that sixteen year olds have the highest crash rate per mile driven, which shows their lack of experience. There are many articles that go into detail with proven evidence that younger ages have significantly higher crash rates rather than older ages (Hamilton 1030). Over time, this gap lessens, but there’s a 45% difference in crash rates after two years of beginning to drive (Hamilton 1030). Additionally, Hamilton describes how younger teens have trouble managing hazards on the road such as checking mirrors, traffic, signs, and distractions, etc. As a result, they are more likely to overlook important dangers that they should be paying attention to. Hamilton also emphasizes that younger teens underestimate how dangerous the roads truly are. This habit can lead to unsafe decision making. For example, in unpredictable moments drivers should have the ability to think critically and quickly about unexpected situations. All of these factors highlight that most teens under eighteen are still building the maturity and awareness needed to handle the responsibilities of driving, which makes a strong argument why the legal driving age should be increased to eighteen.
Crash statistics clearly indicate that younger teens often lack the experience and judgment required for safe, independent driving. This limited experience of driving leads to having slow reaction time as well as decision making skills in situations that could cause severe harm. The National Center for Injury Prevention and Control has statistics of how in 2023, 3,048 teenagers from the ages of thirteen to nineteen died in the United States strictly from car crashes (qtd. in IIHS). This is shocking as teenagers drive a lot less than older people considering most don’t have full time jobs or other responsibilities to attend to other than school and athletics. Even so, teenage crash deaths are noticeably higher than older adults. This risk is noticed strictly at the age of sixteen (Weast). In addition, crash data has proven that driving at night raises the chance of an accident for teenage drivers, as well as having teen passengers during this time of day. All of these numbers highlight a clear distinction between teenage drivers and adults, showing that younger drivers are at a much higher risk for car accidents. These points strongly support raising the legal driving age to eighteen as it’s necessary to make sure road safety is the number one priority for all drivers.
Although many people support raising the legal driving age, the opposing side has research that suggests that raising the age only doesn’t necessarily mean there will be safe driving. A study published by Elizabeth Walshe, Daniel Romer, and Abraham Wyner in JAMA Network Open found that first time drivers who start at the age eighteen have higher crash rates than teens who start driving at sixteen (Walshen et al.). However, this study does not suggest that all eighteen year olds are dangerous drivers, but instead that they do not have the same supervised driving that is required for sixteen year olds in order to receive their license. As well as during driving school younger teens had higher scores in these tests rather than older teens. Walshe’s cohort study of 136,643 people between the ages of sixteen to twenty four only scored high in the age range of sixteen and seventeen (Walshe et al.). Because of this, people who disagree with raising the legal driving age to eighteen argue that only increasing the age limit would not make a difference unless the law made it so every first time driver had to have supervised driving. Walshe and everyone who thinks it's necessary to have improvements in safety for driving believe that just strictly changing the legal driving age would not make a difference unless they had the same regulations as younger drivers in order to obtain their license.
While the opposing side raises important concerns, these issues can be resolved through regulated supervised driving that is confirmed by the law. According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, there are systems to make sure new drivers are having supervised driving without risk of an accident. This is called graduated driver licensing, which is designed to issue an opportunity that allows beginning drivers to obtain experience safely (Weast). However, this is where eighteen year olds lack in terms of supervised driving, as it only requires ages below eighteen to follow graduated licensing. The graduated licensing system has a three step regulation in order to obtain your license. This three step system begins with having a supervised learner’s period which means having an intermediate license that requires testing. After getting the permit, the teen attends driving school and acquires 70 supervised hours during night and day (Weast). Soon after they take the driving test with their instructor. Although this regulated system was made to ensure teenage driver’s safety, their high crash rates say otherwise. According to Weast, the probability of a fatal car crash per mile driven is three times higher for sixteen and seventeen year olds drivers compared to drivers twenty and older (Weast). Ultimately, raising the legal driving age to eighteen and ensuring there is supervised driving would lead to road safety, as younger teens often lack the necessary maturity to drive without an adult.
Overall, raising the legal driving age to eighteen, along with required supervised driving for all new drivers, creates the best solution for crash rates and making the roads safer. The research on teen development relays how crucial it is that younger drivers are not mentally mature enough to have the necessary skills in unexpected situations, especially on the road. Increasing supervised driving and time to mature for younger teens would eventually decrease crashes and deaths among young drivers, making the roads safer for everyone. Even though increasing the legal driving age could lead to issues from reducing independence in young teens, I believe the benefits heavily leave the argument with a clear solution, which is raising it. By reducing crashes that come from controllable issues, raising the legal driving age to eighteen is the best resolution to improve road safety for everyone.
Works Cited
CDC. “Risk Factors for Teen Drivers.” Teen Drivers, CDC, 25 Apr. 2024, www.cdc.gov/teen-drivers/risk-factors/index.html. Hamilton, Vivian E. “Liberty without Capacity: Why States Should Ban Adolescent Driving.” Georgia Law Review, vol. 48, no. 4, June 2014, pp. 1019-84. EBSCOhost, research.ebsco.com/linkprocessor/plink?id=47f053d4-efec-3db2-a1ae-86c2c2e3e058.
National Safety Council. “Age of Driver.” Injury Facts, 2022, injuryfacts.nsc.org/motor-vehicle/overview/age-of-driver/.
“Teenagers.” IIHS-HLDI Crash Testing and Highway Safety, 2022, www.iihs.org/research-areas/teenagers.
Walshe, Elizabeth A., et al. “Licensing Examination and Crash Outcomes Postlicensure in Young Drivers.” JAMA Network Open, vol. 5, no. 4, 25 Apr. 2022, p. E228780, jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2791283
Comments
Post a Comment