Persuasive Essay On Teenage Driving

1001 Words5 Pages
It seems that you’re constantly hearing about another teenager who died in a car accident. Everyone says that they were too young and had so much life left to live, that they were taken too soon and they were going to do big things in the world; however, nothing is done and soon they are forgotten about until it happens again. But how many innocent kids have to die from the leading cause of deaths in teenagers until something is changed. According to an article published by CBS, “More than 5,000 U.S. teens die each year in car crashes” (CBS/AP). The U.S. needs to change something to lower this number. Raising the legal minimum driving age to 18 would help lower the number of accidents involving teens by cutting the amount of teenage drivers on the road in half. Obviously it would be objected by teens who want to drive as soon as they can, but in the long run it could save their lives. Teen drivers are by far the most dangerous on the road, and have the highest chance of getting into accidents. “The rate of crashes, fatal and nonfatal, per mile driven for 16-year-old drivers is almost 10 times the rate for drivers ages 30 to 59” (CBS/AP). This high accident rate is due largely because of the underdevelopment of the teenage brain. An article in the Chicago Tribune says that “ The front portion of the brain—which includes control of impulses, judgment and decision-making, and the coordination of multi-tasking—matures deep into the 20s” (Chicago Tribune). So why are we