Driving Age Reconsidered
Many states allow students to start driving as soon as they reach the age of 15. Of course, at this point, they are supposed to receive supervision of a more experienced driver, usually their parents, but in just 6 months they are allowed to hit the roads on their own. Although many states have the graduated drivers license system in place that tries to prepare students for the on-road experience and gradually eases them into unsupervised driving, sometimes it proves not enough.
In North Carolina, three teens were killed in road accidents in the matter of 2 weeks. All three accidents involved driving well over the speed limit, two of them involved teens not wearing seatbelts.
This clearly shows that these teens were not prepared for the road challenges and they failed to take the simple safety measures that could have saved their lives. Teens are known for their risk-taking behavior and that is not something that can be tolerated on the road as they endanger not only themselves, but also those drivers around them. Maybe raising the bar a little and shifting the permit age to 16-18 and compulsory drivers education and driving lessons for all first-time applicants, as in most of the European countries, is be the option our authorities should look into?
