The Driving Age

Nowadays many teenagers feel that they need to be independent from their parents as soon as they possibly can. It is common for there to be contests among friends regarding who gets to go out by themselves, who has no curfew, and who learns how to drive first. Many teens feel that they need to learn how to drive as soon as they can. The driving age should be raised to 18 because many teens are not yet responsible enough to respect traffic safety laws; they are easily distracted by cellphones while driving; and tend to drive intoxicated, which commonly results in deadly crashes.
First, the driving age needs to be raised to 18 because many teens are not yet responsible enough to respect traffic safety laws. To start with, it has been found by
multiple scientific studies that teenagers’ decision making skills are not fully developed until they have become young adults. This issue can lead to many poor decisions while driving such as intoxicated driving, speeding, and texting while driving. Unfortunately, many teenagers are killed in car crashes caused by unwise decisions, but if the driving age was raised to 18, many tragic car accidents could be prevented. In 2013 alone, there were 2,524 motor vehicle related deaths among United States teens (https://www.edgarsnyder.com/car-accident/who-was-injured/teen/teen-driving-statistics.html#2013). Additionally, there have been many instances of teenagers partaking in dangerous and illegal stunt driving such as street racing. This is a prime example of how most teens do not understand the possibly lethal consequences of their actions. The driving age needs to be raised to 18 years old because during any age before that, teenagers’ decision making skills are not fully developed which can lead to poor decisions with possibly fatal outcomes.
Additionally, the driving age needs to be raised to 18 because many dangerous and deadly crashes have been caused because of teenagers using their phones while driving. To begin with, according to AAA, 46% of teens admit to texting and driving, and as of now, the leading cause of death in teenagers is deadly crashes caused by texting while driving (https://www.edgarsnyder.com/car-accident/who-was-injured/teen/teen-driving-statistics.html#2013) (http://www.newsday.com/news/nation/study-texting-while-driving-now-leading-cause-of-death-for-teen-drivers-1.5226036) . If the driving age was raised to 18, it would help to ensure that the inexperienced drivers on the road would understand the dangers of texting while driving, which could prevent many deadly crashes. Furthermore, while adults and teens both text and drive, it has been found that it is more dangerous for teenagers. Teenagers are four times more likely than adults to get in a car crash from texting and driving ( https://www.edgarsnyder.com/car-accident/cause-of-accident/cell-phone/cell-phone-statistics.html ). Furthermore, another reason why the driving age needs to be raised is because many teens are active on social media and if an alert goes off on their phone, it is likely that they will take their eyes of the road to check their mobile devices. Dangerous and fatal crashes caused by teenagers using their phones while driving is another reason why the driving age needs to be raised to 18.
Finally, the driving age needs to be raised to 18 because many teenagers tend to drive while intoxicated, which leads to many deaths and serious injuries.
To begin, while drinking and driving is common among adults, teens are 3 times more likely to die in a car crash from intoxicated driving than more experienced adult drivers ( http://www.cdc.gov/vitalsigns/teendrinkinganddriving/ ). In a study by the CDC, it was found that teenagers are 17 times more likely to die in a crash when they have a blood alcohol of 0.8% ( http://www.cdc.gov/vitalsigns/teendrinkinganddriving/ ). Next, underage drinkers are also more reckless and less likely to wear a seatbelt than older intoxicated drivers. By raising the driving age, the inexperienced drivers on the road would be old enough to recognize the risks of drinking while driving, and if they did drive intoxicated they would be more likely to drive safer than teenage DUI drivers ( http://dui.drivinglaws.org/resources/dui-and-dwi/dui-basics/the-sobering-facts-underage-duis.htm ). Also, if a teen is pressured by their friends to drive while he or she is drunk, they are more likely to than an older person. It is very common for teenagers to feel the need to impress their friends, even if what they are being pressured to do is extremely dangerous. By raising the driving age to 18 it would help prevent dangerous DUI driving by teens and
crashes.
Overall, teenagers’ underdeveloped decision making skills, tendency to be distracted by cellphones while driving, and inclination to drink and drive are all reasons why the driving age should be raised to 18. Teenagers’ decision making skills are not completely developed until adulthood, and this can cause many unwise and poor decisions to be made while driving. In addition, it is incredibly common for teenagers to text or talk on their phones while driving, which can result in many fatal car crashes. Finally, many teenagers drive while intoxicated, which has caused many car crashes that leave the victims either dead or severely injured. By raising the driving age to 18, many lives could be saved.