I believe the drinking age should be lowered and the driving age should be raised. I am sure many adults think it is ignorant and believe I am just a teenager who wants the drinking age lowered so I can drink and “have a good time”. But I think that my thought has a lot more meaning that me just wanting to “have a good time”. The drinking age should be lowered to sixteen years old and the driving age should be raised to eighteen years old. It would lower the drinking and driving accidents and fewer teenagers would die at young ages from drinking and driving.
Teenagers would be able to drink without sneaking around, and we all know that leads to drinking and driving. Also, teenagers could get their “wild days” over with before they are able to get their license and are tempted to drink and drive.
Teenagers make silly mistakes and do not make the smartest decisions at times. I know from experience how difficult it is to not drive after I had been drinking, especially when I would get myself in a bad situation. Most teenagers I know would drink and drive and risk getting hurt or even killing themselves to avoid getting in trouble with their parents or the police.
Some people may say that drinking causes you to make wrong decisions which may lead to teenagers driving even without a license. If drinking age was lowered, teenagers would be able to drink at home legally and go drink at a friend’s house rather than lying to their parents and trying to make it home after drinking alcohol.
Statistics show that each year approximately 1,900 deaths of teenagers under twenty-one die from motor vehicle crashes. Twenty-five percent of teenagers killed in 2003 had a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of .08 or higher.
Having said all that, I believe it would be a very wise decision to try my idea. I am not saying this so I can drink legally. I am saying this because it would save lives.