Should the age 16 be the legal driving age?

Should the age 16 be the legal driving age? Studies show that at the ages sixteen and seventeen you are more likely to die than any other age in your life and the reason for that is driving. In 2013 just a little under a million teenage drivers were involved in reported crashes according to AAA. However even with all the accidents that happen between the ages of sixteen and seventeen, sixteen is still the perfect age to start driving, but the training for teenage drivers needs to be more drastic.

One of the biggest problems with teenage drivers is texting and driving. Over the years with so many advances in technology this problem has just gotten worse. When teenagers are driving it should not just be the driver that must be responsible for staying off their phone while driving, it should also be the passengers. When the driver sees their passengers on their phones they are more likely to grab their own phone and get on themselves. So hold each other accountable and help the driver to stay off the phone while driving it could save lives.

Another one of the biggest problems with teenage driving is having non-family members in the car before before the driver is ready for that kind of responsibility. Adding just one non-family passenger to a teenage driver’s car increases the chance of a crash by 44% the risk doubles with another and quadruples with three or more. Now in order to keep this from happening parents should make sure their kids are ready before they allow their children with other non-family members in the car. By doing this the risk for a crash will drop substantially and that’s all we really want as parents, to make sure our children are safe.

One of the biggest problems if not the biggest problem for teenage drivers is drinking and driving. In 2013 almost one third of teenage drivers killed in crashes had been drinking. Over the years this problem has just gotten worse because of peer pressure, trying to fit in with the popular kids and addiction. As parents it should be our responsibility to make sure our children know their values so that when the time comes to say no they will have the will power to be able to say no.

In conclusion teenage drivers have always been a problem when it comes to accidents. However that does not mean that we need to change the age at which we can learn how to drive, it just means that we need to have more rules and regulations for young drivers to keep them out of harms way. Parents need to make sure that their children are able to know the difference between making a dumb decision that could cause someone to lose their life, and choosing the smart decision and staying away from things that teenage drivers are too inexperienced to know how to do in a high risk situation.