What Is Raising The Driving Age Essay

880 Words4 Pages

A great number of young lives are tragically cut short every year, in one of the leading causes of death in the world: car accidents. Soon after obtaining their permit at just sixteen, a large amount of those teens end up making a fatal mistake while driving and lose their lives. America, understandably concerned with the death rate, has since implemented stricter laws regarding obtaining a driver’s licence, and is considering raising the minimum driving age. Throughout time, young age has always been correlated with recklessness and carelessness, and it is rational to assume such a stance on such a dangerous issue as car accidents. In order to increase safety and reduce death, it would be prudent to raise the minimum driving age. More crashes are caused by teens, who are more careless than older drivers. As writer Anahad O’Connor explains, teens …show more content…

According to the same study by Dr. Masten, “75 percent of the fatal crashes we thought we were saving actually just occurred two years later.” (27) Although some crashes just happened a few years later, that does not refute the fact that nonetheless these restrictions saved lives. In fact, even if these regulations only pushed back these deaths, it seems much more desirable to have an extra two years of life than have it cut short even a moment earlier. What is important is the fact that the inevitable is delayed, not that these laws only delay the inevitable. One must also recognize that between 2002 and 2008, there has been more than two thousand less 15- to 20- year old drivers involved in fatal crashes. (23) This statistic exemplifies just how effective the tougher driving laws on teens implemented during this time are, and suggests that to take further steps to restrain young drivers would save even more lives. Raising the minimum driving age would almost certainly drastically reduce the amount of teen drivers involved in fatal