Proposal Essay: Driving In The Hands Of A Minor

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Maryou Ibrahim
Ms. Roach
Modern Literature
03 December 2014
Driving in the Hands of a Minor

The leading cause of death among teenagers in modern society is not suicide. It is not

drowning, nor is it homicide (“Duffer”). According to Robert Duffer of the
Chicago Tribune
, the leading cause of death among teens today is motor vehicle accidents. Numerous critics of raising the driving age suggest that doing so will solve nothing. This statistically is not true. Many factors should be accounted for when proposing the legal driving age. The pivotal reasons that teens under eighteen should not be permitted to drive without guidance is due to the lack of experience and maturity, not to mention that is considerably safer.
It has been proven by many research centers that the more passengers a teen driver has the more the death rates go up in statistics (“Driving”). Drivers who are at most risk on the road in getting into an accident are the teen passengers, newly licensed teens and male drivers
(“ProQuest”). Distracted driving for teens are passengers, technology and the urge to show off causes 11% of fatal crashes. Whenever people are in a car they always have the urge to pick up a conversation with the driver. The driver then really gets into the conversation and starts talking to the passenger and loses focus from the road and the next thing that happens is that they are in a huge car accident (“What’s”). According the National Safety Council, passengers are not the only distraction, technology plays a huge role in teen driving accidents (“Teen”). Liberty Mutual and the non­profit organization Students against Destructive Decisions found that about 86% of juniors and seniors in high school use a cellphone while driving. In 2009, Pew launched a survey that found out that almost 50% of 16 and 17 year olds talk and text on the phone while driving.
When they were asked why they do this they answered “My parents do it all the time and
This class requires an in class based

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teaching style and an on road teaching session. After teens have passed the course and get their license they have limits set with certain restrictions. These limits and restriction vary with every state but in most states they include the times they are allowed to drive, being able to maintain a blood alcohol content of less than .01% and if they are under the age of 18, the number of passengers they can have in their car. When this whole process is done with, it produces an experience and a well taught driver (“ProQuest”). Teenagers think they are well experience but they have not yet dealt with different animals on the road, different road conditions and driving throughout construction zones (“Copeland”). Teens are always used to getting a reminder on wearing their seatbelt from their parents so teenagers always forget to wear it (“Parents”).
Another lack of experience teenagers have is road rage, it occurs very often and teenagers will not know how to deal with it (“Teen”). It has been recognized that teens will always have more passengers in the car with them than they are allowed to have “(Copeland”). An