Skarie ACE Debate

There are many reasons towards why the driving age should be raised, as well as a lot of statistical numbers that show that the driving age should be raised. I truly believe the driving age should be raised not only to reduce the number of deaths that teenagers cause on the road, but to really make driving so much less scary than it is now. When you get on the road today, you don't know if you will make it to your destination safe and sound or damaged. If we raise the driving age, it will help our country for the better.

Continuing on with teenage drivers being very dangerous, between 1995 and 2004, there was 30,917 deaths that were caused by 15-17 year old drivers on the road according to the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety. This shows how dangerous not only teenagers are, but how dangerous teenagers are after they get the license.

I think the driving age should be raised to 18 years of age because teenagers are very immature.

Did you know that alcohol is a factor in many teen crashes? (Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, Teenagers: Driving carries extra risk for them, pg. 1) Also, 1 in 10 teenagers drink and drive. (Center for Disease Control and Prevention: Vital Signs, pg. 1) Finally, teenage drivers are 3 times as likely to crash than others 20 years or older because of speeding according to the IIHS.

To go along with my post earlier that teenagers are very immature, in 2013 only 55% percent of high school students say that they always wear their seat belts. With teenagers driving as fast as they do as well as not wearing a seat belts, they can be very dangerous to others and themselves. (Teen Drivers: Get the Facts, CDC, pg.1)

Ellyn says that raising the driving age would not save 18 year old people. It would just cause more death for 18 year old teenagers than 16 year old teenagers. Instead, I would like to disagree. If teenagers started their driving program when they were 15 years old and were able to drive with no restrictions when they were 18 years old, they would be actually more safe than just having one year of driving school. Instead, they would have 2 or maybe even 3 years of driving school, which would prepare them even more for the real world and what it is like to drive for real. Therefore, I think that 18 year old teenagers would be more safe driving than 16 year old teenagers.

There is always a controversial issue on the subject "Should the driving age be raised?" I believe that the driving age should be raised to 18 years old for the following reasons.

First and foremost, teenagers are very unsafe when driving vehicles. According to the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in 2011, about 2,650 teens in the United States between the ages of 16 and 19 were killed due to car accidents. As well as 292,000 were treated in emergency departments for injuries suffered in motor-vehicle crashes all because of teenagers.