Should the Minimum Driving Age Be Raised?
In 2012, 54 percent of the deaths of teenage passengers in passenger vehicles occurred in vehicles driven by another teenager. Among deaths of passengers of all ages, 14 percent occurred when a teenager was driving (Insurance Institute of Highway Safety). These numbers show that teenagers are inexperienced and should not get a driver’s license so young. The minimum driving age should be raised.
The mortality rate of teenagers because of motor vehicle crashes is way to high. Based on 2005 figures, the latest mortality data available from The National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) Motor Vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death in 15 to 20-year old’s. Seeing that this is the leading cause of death means that it should be changed and evidence would imply that raising the driving age could be an easy way to fix this. In 2008 2,739 15 to 20-year old drivers were killed in crashes in addition to 228,000 that were injured in motor vehicle crashes. The mortality/injury rate in 15 to 20-year old drivers is higher than almost any other age group.
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According to source 2 the reason for this is that the teenage crash rate is 10 times that of middle age drivers, and not because they are reckless but instead they make too many simple mistakes. These mistakes could be fixed or addressed by something called narrative driving, where an adult passenger will point out examples of bad driving and teach the teenager how to deal with distractions on the road. Another reason for this is their lack of sleep. A study in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine says teenagers lose sleep because of school and depending on how early they start school they are more prone to crashes. Though teenagers still need practice during these years they should not get a full license until they