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Raise driving age?
Was reading the article about the MD teens in the car crash and noticed a topic that seems to arise everytime a catastrophe like this occurs. Raising the driving age. What is the age in your area? Do you agree? Why or why not? Suggestions?
In VA the age is 16 for solo driving with restrictions in place until the age of 18. I have mixed feelings on this debate. On one hand, I feel that no matter what age we set, an individual always begins driving with the same amount of experience. The maturity level that should accompany a higher age is the other side. Older individuals should be driving with a higher maturity level. Hopefully. However, even this would be on a case-by-case basis. Different teens will handle new freedoms in different ways. Maybe the solution is more time driving with an adult prior to being released. Maybe the solution is more awareness of what can happen. Most drivers ed tapes always seem to fade out when it comes to showing the destruction of the vehicles. Maybe this is something we should be showing them. The fact that this discussion keeps arising in political arenas makes me wonder if we are targeting the right aspect of it. Maybe raising the solo age is not the solution.
In VA the age is 16 for solo driving with restrictions in place until the age of 18. I have mixed feelings on this debate. On one hand, I feel that no matter what age we set, an individual always begins driving with the same amount of experience. The maturity level that should accompany a higher age is the other side. Older individuals should be driving with a higher maturity level. Hopefully. However, even this would be on a case-by-case basis. Different teens will handle new freedoms in different ways. Maybe the solution is more time driving with an adult prior to being released. Maybe the solution is more awareness of what can happen. Most drivers ed tapes always seem to fade out when it comes to showing the destruction of the vehicles. Maybe this is something we should be showing them. The fact that this discussion keeps arising in political arenas makes me wonder if we are targeting the right aspect of it. Maybe raising the solo age is not the solution.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Kevin Teel on
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i dont say raise the the age how about we try and tell these teens that texting or talking on their phones causes accidents, or how about we teach these people that the stunts portrayed in the fast and the furious movies were done by professionals. also raising the age limit for the teenage driver isn't going to do squat, it's the fact that the general driving public has pea sized brains when it comes to safe driving. a law was passed in my area that if you get caught talking or texting on phones while driving, two points get added to your license with the fine. too bad the police can't impound the car
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Permalink Reply by Bill Carlisle on
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Raising the age will not solve the problem, Better drivers ed programs, and the parents teaching the kids to drive are better solutions , As Kevin stated in NY you get two points on your license for texting or talking on the cell while driving, the police may not be able to impound the car , but the parents can, and if you know the kid driving like a fool and know his parents let them know , As a parent i seldom knew how my sons were driving till i saw one of them do a burnout one night, needless to say after two weeks without the car and he spent $300.00 for tires he slowed down a little and now drives tractor trailer .
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Permalink Reply by Norm Tindell on
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Spanner wrote what I was thinking. It's the parents' responsibility to make sure the kid is ready to take on the responsibility. We worked a fatal wreck just before Christmas. A 16-year-old boy in a brand new car caused the wreck. He had the car three days. His parents handed him a loaded weapon and said, "Have a nice ride." Perhaps there is a way to make parents more accountable. You'd think the tragedy of losing a child would be enough.
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kevin that was dead on. too bad the parents can't be held liable for something their son/daughter did to cause an accident. underage DWI charges are on the incline this day and age, no matter what the police teach them in school, or what us firefighters teach them with live rescue exercises. kids these days don't care regardless. they have the "oh this won't happen to me" attitude, and when it does happen to them, the parents come and defend them. it seems like no matter what happens kids today will do whatever they want.
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Permalink Reply by Andy Turnham on
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Revamp and extend Driver's Ed. When I was a kid, as soon as I got a driver's permit I joined a "Rally club". I got to let rip in a field doing manovering competions, with experrienced drivers to teach how to controll my car. That led on to rally driving and an in depth knowledge of the hunk of iron I was in controll of.
Kids don't change, they all want to be Racers (boys particularly)and the best thing to do is to let them express that in a controlled enviroment while teaching them how to be safe and keep others safe. Driver's Ed could do this if there was the real commitment to young drivers needs.
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Permalink Reply by Jack/dt on
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There seems to be an abundance of (typically, wrong) conventional wisdom regarding teen drivers.
Raising the age will not solve the problem,
raising the age limit for the teenage driver isn't going to do squat,
I'm just not sure raising the age is going to solve anything.
Raiseing the limit is not the answer, look back on past generations. How many kids were causeing or in accidents many years past?
A total of 4,054 teenagers ages 13-19 died in motor vehicle crashes in 2008. This is 54 percent fewer than in 1975 and 19 percent fewer than in 2007
http://www.iihs.org/research/fatality_facts_2008/teenagers.html
The risk for a car accident is highest for teen drivers at age 16. The auto accident rate per mile driven is twice as high for 16-year-olds as it is for 18 and 19-year-olds.
http://seriousaccidents.com/blog/accident-prevention/teen-driver-ca...
Research by IIHS found that delaying the licensing age from 16 to 16½ reduced the fatal crash rate of 15-to-17-year-olds by 7 percent. Restricting driving after 9 p.m. cut fatal crashes by 18 percent, compared with states with no restrictions. When novice drivers were prohibited from having teenage passengers, the fatal crash rate was 21 percent lower than if two or more passengers were allowed.
Those 3 changes right there could reduce teen deaths by 46%
http://www.usnews.com/news/national/articles/2010/03/18/dc-tops-new...
In the United States, the crash rate per mile driven for 16-19 year-olds is 4 times the risk for older drivers. Risk is highest at age 16. In fact, the crash rate per mile driven is twice as high for 16 year-olds as it is for 18-19 year-olds.
http://www.iihs.org/research/fatality_facts_2008/teenagers.html
http://www.adtsea.org/adtsea/pdf/CQ%20Researcher_Teen%20Driving%20R...
This comment (page 1)I find most disturbing, "I believe when it is your time to leave this world...it's just your time...........it doesn't matter if your 16 and driving a car or 99 and sitting on your porch." If you believe this then there is no need for speed limits, seatbelts, SSR, or even driver ed. Might as send your child off with a loaded gun as well, after all, it's not like anyone is going to *accidentally* shot, right? If it happens, it happens.
Back to the *conventional wisdom; Raising the driving age (even to 16 1/2) would reduce teen driver fatalities. Having a GDL does reduce both teen fatalities AND overall accident rates.
Driving does NOT enhance maturity, instead the leading cause of teen accidents and deaths is a DIRECT result of the immaturity of the drivers.
Teen deaths HAVE dropped over the past 30 years so no, teen drivers in the 70's were not only NOT better drivers, they had more accidents and more DEATHS.
Come on people, do some basic research, it's all out there on the google and the internets. And it's all verifiably correct.
If not raising the age limit at least having strict (and strictly enforced) GDL's which limit when, where and with whom a new driver can drive WILL reduce teen deaths and accidents.
Sorry but opinion without fact is little more than white noise that does nothing to actually address the issues. LEARN the facts about teen drivers, driving and the causative factors inherent therein. Those deaths can be reduced, significantly.
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Permalink Reply by joemac on
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I'm all for raising the minimum driving age and restricting beginners.
I also think it should be mandatory that all new drivers should spend a certain number of hours going to MVA classes, where they must view videos of horrible crash results. We did, when I was learning to drive. "Signal 30", anyone?
And that wasn't even very gruesome.
It needs to be impressed on new drivers what can, and does (unfortunately) happen out there. There's probably nothing better to drive home the impression than graphic evidence.
When I was 16 and learning to drive, I was going on MVA calls as a volunteer firefighter. I still remember some of those scenes. Seeing someone's grey matter in a dry creek-bed makes an impression that never goes away.
The first corpse I saw was an old man who'd rammed his Buick into a concrete bridge abutment. I still think about the catastrophic capabilities of driving a multi-ton projectile almost every time I get into a car or truck.
After forty-three years of driving I still have an awareness that anything can happen, even to those of us who are innocent and driving carefully.
I think elderly drivers are also a serious issue. We should all be re-tested every few years.
I know...who's going to pay for it?
Insurance companies sure seem to be making profits...
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