Teen Driving

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requirements in the country, Pennsylvania still allows students over 18 to waive the driving hours required for younger drivers. In Washington, however, even though the law allows for 16 year old drivers, many teens choose to wait until they turn eighteen to start their driving experience so that they too can skip the required hours for the permit, and go straight into drivers education, causing mayhem. If Washington state changed the laws to make adolescent drivers carry their permits until at least age seventeen and make eighteen year olds do a portion of the required permit hours than teens on the road would have more time to practice one the road without dangerous conditions like the dark at night.

In the USA, passengers causing distractions cause more crashes than texting and driving. It is good that we have a law that for the first six months of driving only family can ride with the new driver, not friends. Yet this helps some, others would find it very difficult to focus on the road with their little sibling nagging about they get to drive and they don’t or asking a million questions a minute. According to studies, 58 percent of crashes had a passenger(General Statistics on Teen Crashes, Teen Driver Source) opposed to 10% of teens crashes caused by electronics(Key Facts and Statistics, Official US government Website for Distracted Driving). Teens driving alone would be an option although as they should be supervised an adult or guardian should be present. Six months of driving without siblings with help many accidents be prevented.

Almost all teenagers look forward to driving. However, the desire for a driver’s license must be balanced with the safety and responsibility that comes with this. 16 year old just don’t have what it takes and giving them a few more years to mature would be very impactful.It is time to upgrade the legal driving age to 18.