Driving Age | Teen Ink

Driving Age

September 3, 2010
By Angelica29 BRONZE, Thornton, Colorado
Angelica29 BRONZE, Thornton, Colorado
1 article 0 photos 0 comments

Teens need to drive as much as anyone else to get to school, work, sports, band practice, or just to go out with friends. Some of them can become responsible and caring for what they do. They sometimes need a car to get to school or to get to a place were they need to be. Other teenagers need to drive because there could be an emergency that they need to attend to. Teens should be able to drive because it’s not always teens that cause the accidents. There are some adults that cause them because they are drunk or they are not paying attention to the road. The teens are influenced by their parents and they do anything they see their parents do.


The driving age in the U.S should be raised to 18 because many teenagers that are under the age of 18 do not really care what they do. Some people who are 18 or older start caring about what they do because they go to collage. The ones that are younger than 18 don’t know to drive and they can cause accidents. Rising the driving age to 18 will help prevent many accidents that are caused by teenagers.


Driving at 16 is not an early age because some teens start to learn when they are 14 or younger. “In some states of America it is legal to drive at the age 15 or younger.” Everywhere in the world, lawmakers are trying to raise the driving age to 18. In Europe the driving age is already 18 so they are trying to raise it up to 21. If teens can’t drive at any age, well the age for driving should just be raised up to about 16 or 17. There is a driving school were students could attend to and they could learn how to drive and have better skills at driving. That could help to prevent many accidents from occurring. When the teen is going to drive they should only drive for a good reason and not just drive to go take a ride with their friends. They should just use it to go to school or for an important emergency.

Teenagers that do not care how they drive do not respect the speed limit and they pass it. When they go to parties they get drunk and still drive. Accidents are caused mostly by teenagers. There are some accidents caused by not paying attention to the road and been on the phone. When the teens are driving with their parents and they see that their parent is on the phone either calling or texting they will do it to. The teen will say that they just did the same thing their parent did while they were driving. If the teenager is going to drive at a young age, than they should get their permit and only drive with their parent or an adult in the car. That could keep a teen from having an accident.


In all, the website About.com said that there were like 34,376 accidents by younger drivers throughout the state in 2008. Out of the 34,376 8,654 accidents involved drivers 16 to 18 year old and 14,010 involved 18 and 19 years old of age. Teen drivers are more likely to have an accident than drivers of age 60 to 64 or 65 to 69. Raising the driving age will not stop driving accidents. It will not stop teens from getting a car and drive. The National Highway Traffic Safety reported 3,657 drivers 15-20 years old killed in 2010.


My opinion would be that you can drive at age 16 and older. Before starting to drive the teen should get their license then they should think to their self for a while and ask his/her self if they are ready and if they are going to be responsible. I’ve seen teens that drive at age 13 or 14 years old, for their parents because they are drunk. I think that the parent should not drink and care more about his kid. Last they need to see if there parents are ok with it. This is my opinion on been able to drive at age 16 and older.



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This article has 1 comment.


on Apr. 14 2011 at 7:02 pm
I love it! Thanks so much for giving your opinion on the driving age, it really helped me write an essay on teens opinions on whether the age should be raised or not.