The Tragedy of Teenage Driving

Someone once said, “Never drive faster than your guardian angel can fly.” Even though it wasn’t said by someone famous, like Gandhi, or Confucius, you have to admit that it does have some sense to it. You see, teenagers getting in cars, going too fast, and crashing themselves has become a rather big problem in our world. And each year, thousands of people die. That’s right, today I’m going to talk about the problem of teen driving. So who’s to blame? Well, no one actually. You can’t blame the teens because they aren’t adults yet, and aren’t ready to take on such a big responsibility like driving a car. In the next few paragraphs we’ll see discuss the aspects and problems of fatal teen collisions, why 16 is the wrong age to start driving, and laws to pass to solve this problem.

In 2005, there were nearly 6,420,000 car accidents. The result of these millions of car crashes was billions of dollars in damage, and countless people injured and dead. One such accident was on October 13th, 2005. 2 teenage sisters, ages 15 and 17, along with their 15 year old passenger, crashed their SUV into a utility pole. The crash resulted in a fatality for the two girls, and serious injuries to the 15 year old third passenger in the back seat. Did you know that in the US alone, there is one fatal crash every 13 minutes? Right now, car collisions are the leading cause of death for teenagers, which is not surprising at all. 16 years of age is not even considered legally an adult, and the 1st year drivers are 3 times as likely to die in a crash than drivers of any other age. As drivers, 16 and 17 year old’s fatal collision probability increases with each passenger. There are about 6,000 teenagers killed in car accidents each year. That’s a problem. However, not only are these kids killing themselves, they are killing other people too. Considering not just the safety of yourself, but also the safety of your family and peers, we must make a decision: Are we prepared to allow these 16 year olds- these children, handle the weapons society calls, “Cars?”

What are the reactions to people when you tell them that 6,000 teenagers have died in crashes? It could be something from anywhere like, “Woah! We need to fix something!” to, “Who cares, it was their own choice not to drive carefully.” Well, no matter how you say it, 6,000 deaths is 6,000 deaths. And in fact, most, if not all of those 6,000 lives could be saved if the driving age was legally 18. Why you ask? Because at 18, you are officially an adult, and therefore are able to responsibly make decisions for yourself. At 16, you are still a teen- a child- and are not as able to make crucial life death decisions as the adults. At 16, you are probably still living with your parents, and think that if you get involved in an accident on the road, your parents will handle it for you, or talk to the cops for you, and do whatever is your responsibility is for you. Additionally, since teenagers of 16 years have the most crashes, in comparison to other ages, their insurance rates are very high. However, as you get older, the rates drop. At 19 years of age the insurance rates can drop 28 %. That all sounds really exciting, but isn’t it reasonable? After all, at 19 years of age, you are already more responsible and capable of driving. Also, researchers have shown that teenagers have developed a sense of immortality and the, “It can’t possibly happen to me” thought process. 16 year olds are also more worried about getting a ticket than of crashing- studies have shown that. Additionally, in 16 year olds, speeding was involved in 37% of crashes. You see, the point that I’m trying to make is that the minds of 16 year olds are not yet fully developed, and therefore not capable of making decisions like the fully developed minds of 18 year olds can. That is why I believe we should put some laws into action that could fix this catastrophe.