What Is Raising The Driving Age Essay

“The bottom line is that when we look at the research, raising the driving age saves lives”, Adrian Lund said, president of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. Currently, the legal driving age is 16 in most states, some people feel that the legal driving age should be changed to at least 18. Nonetheless, it has to be taken into consideration the “side effects” of raising the driving age. By keeping teens from driving, they would only become less responsible and more dependable on their parents which will inhibit them from experiences that will help them further on in life. Therefore, the driving age should not be raised, however, laws and exams should be harder and tougher. We have to make sure that teenagers are prepared to face situations …show more content…
Making laws and driving tests harder could be one of those alternatives. By imposing a compulsory number of practice hours or legislating new restrictions on young drivers once they have passed, like not being able to drive at night, streets and highways will became safer. Andrea Summer, coordinator of the teen driving program for the Delaware Office of Highway Safety said, “[Delaware] and other states have chosen to toughen laws without raising the driving age.” By making laws and tests harder, teen drivers will know how to be prepared to act, react, and decide appropriately on streets and highways.
Many people may agree with the statement of Adrian Lund, “…raising the driving age saves lives.” It is true that in most cases, high speed thrills are often part of the teen driving experience that may result in fatalities. However, people such as Dr. Barbara Gaines, trauma director at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of VPMC, found other options to solve this problem rather than increase the driving age. Gaines stated that teens who committed moving violations must attend a program at her school, where they learn and talk to young drivers who have been in serious