Raising the Driving Age to 18: Persuasive Essay

According to the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), “In 2017, 2,364 teens in the United States aged 16-19 were killed, and about 300,000 were treated in emergency departments for injuries suffered in motor vehicle crashes.” From this, one can acknowledge how extremely dangerous teens tend to drive and cause many deaths and serious injuries. The lives of many innocent people and children are also taken away by reckless driving by careless teens. Why should teens under the age of 18 be given the privilege to drive if many don't acknowledge the lives of people that can be taken away by their ignorant and selfish actions? These deaths and accidents are not going to stop all of a sudden, action must be taken immediately, or else the death toll will never decrease. Therefore, the legal driving age must be raised up to 18 because of the major consequences including the death of themselves and others due to lack of experience, texting while driving, and less maturity in teens.

The huge responsibility a teen takes while driving is sometimes ignored and can instantly and dramatically impact the lives of themselves and/or others. Why should teens under the age of 18 be given the privilege to drive if many don't acknowledge the lives of people that can be taken away by their ignorant and selfish actions? The use of technology among teens has grown extraordinarily high and will continue to grow. Because of this, teens are often so focused and blinded by their cell phones to even notice a slight change on the road like a red light. The majority of teens also go through neurological development that can cause behavioral issues and problems of not knowing the huge outcomes of a decision very well. In addition to many distractions from cell phones and not fully developed parts of teens’ brains on the road, full preparation for driving is sometimes not taken seriously and many don’t practice enough to understand how to act during a certain situation while driving. With this many risks being taken on the road, many innocent die.

Text, look up, text, look up, text, look up. Teens use their phones to text, they use their phones to call, they use their phones to go on social media, and they use their phones sometimes can kill people or themselves because of the distractions they cause. The huge distractions a phone can sometimes create, even block out some senses in one’s body including hearing and vision creating huge danger on the road. Texting for teens can be extremely distracting, driving requires multitasking and complete awareness on the road at all times, and mixing both together can cause some serious problems. One major problem causing all these deaths on the highway is cell phones. Putting one’s phone away while driving is a necessary requirement, yet most teens still ignore it. Cell phones are very distracting on the road and especially for teens. Teenagers don't care enough to know that replying to a text can kill someone while driving. For example, “According to a AAA poll, 94 percent of teen drivers acknowledge the dangers of texting and driving, but 35% admitted to doing it anyway.”(2). Knowing that a loved one or oneself could be killed for an unimportant text that could have waited but not caring enough to put the phone down demonstrates carelessness and pure selfishness. The fact that many teens know the consequences and continue to do it shows that they need to wait until they are more aware and responsible enough to make the right decisions and still have some development in some parts of the brain to make reasonable decisions.

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Another major problem causing many accidents is the maturity and behaviors of teens. Teens go through a complex cycle of behavioral development which can cause problems while on the road. With a brain that is in the process of lots of growth in certain areas of the brain vital to decision-making, it is not fully safe on the road for teens to be driving early. Ronald E Dahl, a Professor of Public Health at UC Berkeley explained that “Many of the primary causes of death and disability in these years—which include crashes, suicide, substance abuse, and other risky behaviors—are related to problems with control of behavior and emotion.” (Dahl 3). During the years of being a teenager, many drastic brain developments occur and cause sways in emotion and sometimes cause behavioral issues. Knowing that teens are always in mood swings and are easily distracted it is a big risk to people's safety on the road. A lot of the time full preparation for driving isn't done well before driving and can confuse a teen when a certain situation going on the road occurs causing them to feel unsure of how to react.

Getting a driver's license takes some time and a long process and because of this, teens tend to speed carelessly through the learning of the rules and through the highway. Getting a full understanding of the rules and acknowledging the consequences if a law is broken must be taken seriously as many lives can be at risk and are held up by one’s actions. In a study done by The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Research Institute, the most common mistakes that lead to accidents due to inexperience with teen drivers are, “Lack of scanning the roadway, driving too fast for conditions, and Distraction by something inside or outside the vehicle.”(6). Many also have trouble and find it challenging to switch lanes and then panic or get very nervous. These observations and/or common mistakes prove that teens need more practice and maturity before getting behind the wheel. Knowing the basic rules is nothing compared to knowing how to control a car in different conditions and it seems that teens can’t even stay off their phones or get distracted too easily. Teens also are involved in so many accidents for example, according to the

In order to keep the highways safe and decrease the death of many innocent people caused by teen drivers in car accidents, the legal driving age must be increased to 18. Having the privilege to drive is sometimes not taken seriously and can create accidents that sometimes end up with the death of someone. Many deaths on the highway are caused by careless teens who text and drive or get distracted by their phones. Some deaths can be linked to the unfinished development of a teen’s brain to process and assess situations as fast as an adult would. Most accidents are caused by inexperienced teen drivers who don’t know how to react fast enough or didn’t have enough practice. Immediate action must be taken by increasing the age to legally drive or else another innocent person and/or people’s lives will be taken away.