Raising the Driving Age and Increasing Penalties

I feel that the age to get a driver’s license should be raised and that teens should get harsher penalties for wrecking, getting pulled over, or just being careless. I believe that if teens had additional time to learn to drive with a licensed adult they might be ready for the different road conditions once they get their license. I also believe that the roads would be safer not only for everyone else that might be traveling on the roads but for the teens themselves if they had longer to practice driving. If teens would get more harsh penalties, than say a driver that has been driving for a while, then they might be less likely to repeat an offense.  

In fact, “Motor vehicle related crashes remain the leading cause of death in youth from 16 to 20 years of age, resulting in more than 5000 such deaths annually. This age group constitutes only 7% of the U.S. population yet accounts for 14% of all motor vehicle-related deaths. Youth 16-19 years of age constitute 5% of all licensed drivers and 3% of all vehicle miles traveled, yet teenage drivers are involved in 15% of the crashes in which they or other occupants are killed.” (American Academy of Pediatrics Committees on Injuries and Poison Prevention, Adolescence).

According to Melissa Savage from State Legislatures, “Motor vehicle wrecks claim the lives of more teens than does any other accident or illness, more than cancer and more than drowning.” Teens like to listen to the radio and talk on their cell phones while driving or even text. If they are doing all of these things while driving they are definitely not paying attention to the road and can very likely cause a crash. They try to impress their friends or other people and act carelessly and doing this while driving is very dangerous.

I know that just getting a permit to drive makes teenagers get excited and want to drive all the time.  If they can get their driver’s license only 6 months after they get their permit that doesn’t mean that they had enough time to practice driving with a licensed adult. They may have only gotten to drive 5 times out of the whole 6 months. Does that really make them ready to drive on their own? I just believe that they need to practice driving longer with a licensed adult because teenagers really don’t think things through like they should anyway and when it comes to driving it could definitely be dangerous for themselves and everybody else that is out on the road.