Teenagers 16 Years of Age Should Not Be Allowed to Drive

¶ … Teenagers 16 years of age should NOT be allowed to drive." This is a persuasive essay and it discusses the issue of Teenagers NOT being allowed to drive at the age of 16 and why I think they should not be allowed.

Teenagers 16 years of age should NOT be allowed to drive

Car accidents have known to be deadlier than gang violence, suicide, or drugs and alcohol. Every year thousands of teens die all over the world from motor vehicle crash injuries. This is a very important issue and we cannot ignore this problem; as it is simply not going to disappear. Motor vehicle accidents are the number one killer of teenagers aged fifteen to twenty-four. Teenagers are involved in car accidents as both drivers and passengers, compared with other age groups. In addition to the number of teenage driver deaths, two out of three of those teens were traveling in vehicles driven by other teens. Teenage driver's today drivers are responsible for about five times as many fatal crashes per license holder as are drivers between the ages of thirty-five and sixty-four. In many cases, carelessness, lack of experience, and poor decision making are the most likely contributing factors.(Laberge-Nadeau C, Maag U, Bourbeau R. The effects of age and experience on accidents with injuries: should the licensing age be raised? Accid Anal Prev 1992;24:107-16.)

Driving an automobile requires the driver to make skilled and well timed decisions several times each second. Such decisions are primarily based on prior knowledge and driving experience that young drivers do not possess. A lack of driving experience is another key factor in the high incidence of teenage auto accidents. Experience is a very important thing when making decisions and inexperience is a crucial problem; the crash rate for 16-year-olds is almost three times the rate of 18- and 19-year-olds as that age group lacks experience the most. Most novice drivers do not have sufficient training to handle the complex task of driving when they are first licensed. Motor vehicle injuries are the leading cause of death among teenagers, accounting for about one-third of all the deaths of 16- to 19-year-olds. (Williams AF, Preusser DF, Ulmer RG, Weinstein HB. Characteristics of fatal crashes of 16-year-old-drivers: implications for licensure policies. J Public Health Policy 1995;16:347-60.)

16 is the age of delinquency, irresponsibility and peer pressure. This is the age when teenagers feel they are invincible and they take risks that many older individuals would not dream of taking. Driving a car gives them a sense of power and they feel that nothing can stop them and they rule the world. They think that driving will make them fit in-the-crowd, and they tend to get involved in car races. And besides 16 is a critical age when a teenager is going through a lot of psychological changes and is rebellious is many ways which highly affects them when they are driving as they tend to think with emotion other than reason. Which highly increases their risks of getting involved in car accidents? There appears to be several reasons or factors that can help explain the high teen crash rate: exposure, immaturity and risk taking behaviors, and lack of driving experience. Exposure, in this case, pertains to the time of day teens are on the roadways. (Mayhew DR, Simpson HM. New to the road: young drivers and novice drivers: similar problems and solutions? Ottawa (ON): Traffic Injury Research Foundation of Canada; 1990.)

Teenage drivers do a greater proportion of their driving at night and on the weekends when the risks of crashing are heightened Forty-five percent of all teenage motor vehicle deaths occur on weekends Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and 43% of all teenage motor vehicle deaths occur between 9 PM and 6 AM. Immaturity and risk taking behaviors of young drivers are also key factors in their involvement in motor vehicle crashes. Young drivers, especially sixteen-year-olds, tend to engage in impulsive, risky behaviors. Young, inexperienced drivers do not fully recognize the risks involved in driving and making poor decision. Speeding, a risky behavior common among young drivers, was a factor in 32% of fatal crashes involving fifteen to twenty-four-year-olds. It has also been documented that many of the sixteen-year-olds who die in crashes are not using seat belts. A lack of driving experience is another key factor in the high incidence of teenage auto accidents. Eighty-two percent of the sixteen-year-old drivers in fatal crashes during 1993 made at least one driving error that contributed to the crashes. In order to give further support for the belief that driver inexperience contributes to high numbers of teen auto crashes is that the vast majority of fatal crashes with a sixteen-year-old at the wheel involved a driver leaving the roadway and overturning or striking a fixed object on the roadway. Use of alcohol is added to the perceived causes of high teen crash rates. Teenage drivers are at a greater risk of being involved in crashes than older drivers because they are more likely to take risks, underestimate dangerous traffic situations, and have little experience with the effects of alcohol use. Again, young drivers account disproportionately for motor vehicle crashes worldwide, reflecting, in part, the combination of immaturity and lack of driving experience.