Should the driving age be raised to 18? Alarmed by car accidents involving teenagers, a number of states are considering raising the age for getting a license.YES On teenage boys from Chicago went out for a late-night drive and had a terrible accident. The car spun out of control and struck several objects, including a giant light pole. Two of the boys--a 16-year-old and a 17-year-old--were killed. The driver of the car was just 16. After this tragic accident, thousands of people began asking what could be done to prevent this from happening again. The answer is raising the driving age. That's why I introduced legislation to raise the driving age in Illinois from 16 to 18. I realize this idea is controversial, but I could not stand by and watch one more young person die because he or she was not quite ready to be behind the wheel. All 50 states prohibit pro·hib·it tr.v. pro·hib·it·ed, pro·hib·it·ing, pro·hib·its 1. To forbid by authority: Smoking is prohibited in most theaters. See Synonyms at forbid. 2. 16-year-olds from drinking alcohol, buying cigarettes, and purchasing handguns. Yet somehow most states are willing to put them in charge of a car, which could potentially be a deadly weapon deadly weapon n. any weapon which can kill. This includes not only weapons which are intended to do harm like a gun or knife, but also blunt instruments like clubs, baseball bats, monkey wrenches, an automobile or any object which actually causes death. . Between 1995 and 2004, there were 30,917 fatalities in accidents that involved 15-to-17-year-old drivers, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. a study by the AAA AAA: see American Automobile Association. (Triple A) A common single-cell battery used in a myriad of electronic devices of all variety. Like its double A (AA) cousin, it provides 1.5 volts of DC power. When used in series, the voltage is multiplied. Foundation for Traffic Safety. About a third of those deaths were the teen drivers themselves. The rest were pedestrians, passengers, and people in cars that teenage drivers struck. As an Illinois lawmaker, I cannot sit back and watch more innocent lives be claimed because of lack of experience. Raising the driving age may seem burdensome to parents and busy teens, but we have to remember that this is a proposal about safety, not convenience. --Representative John D'Amico
John David D'Amico (September 21, 1937-May 29, 2005) was a National Hockey League (NHL) linesman and later supervisor of officials. Democrat, Illinois State Legislature A state legislature may refer to a legislative branch or body of a political subdivision in a federal system. The following legislatures exist in the following political subdivisions: NO If your neighbor robs a bank, should you go to jail? No. If your classmate gets in an accident, should your driver's license Noun 1. driver's license - a license authorizing the bearer to drive a motor vehicle driver's licence, driving licence, driving license license, permit, licence - a legal document giving official permission to do something be taken away? Of course not. Neither situation is fair. Raising the driving age will punish all young drivers for the mistakes of a few of their peers. In this country we live by the principle of innocent until proven guilty. Those who want to raise the driving age have labeled teens guilty before they've gotten in an accident or before they've even stepped into a car. They believe that just because of your birth date, you are dangerous and must be punished by having your ability to drive taken from you. Those who favor raising the driving age say that statistics show teenagers are more likely to get into accidents than adults. What they don't say is that statistics also show that men of all ages are 77 percent more likely to kill someone while driving than women. If people want to save lives by raising the driving age, then how about saving lives by allowing only women to drive? Except raising the driving age won't save lives. Studies show that it is inexperience Inexperience See also Innocence, Naïveté. Bowes, Major Edward (1874–1946) originator and master of ceremonies of the Amateur Hour on radio. [Am. , not age, that causes accidents. Raising the driving age will just create inexperienced in·ex·pe·ri·ence n. 1. Lack of experience. 2. Lack of the knowledge gained from experience. in , accident-prone drivers at 18 instead of 16. Teens need the ability to drive just as much as anyone else--to get to school, to get to work, to get to sports or band practice, or just to go out with their friends. Cars are necessary for mobility in this country. Taking that away is a large disruption to the lives of teenagers for no good reason. --Alex Koroknay-Paticz National Youth Rights Association
Alex Moody (Member):  6/4/2009 12:26 PM
AS an 18 year old driver I do believe that raising the driving will produce the results that most are hoping for, which is a drop in the numbers of teen accidents. If 16 year old have the priveledge of driving taken away from them, then they will find other ways around the law. Where there is a will, there is a way.<br><br>Also what should be taken into account is that when our parents were our age, they were just as anxious to drive like we are. Experience is everything. Just like a parent would not want to release their child to the world without some type of experience under their belt, like job and life experiences; one would not want their child on the road withouth some type of driving experience. <br><br>Not saying that I am completely for raising the driving age, but if this was to take place there should be other alternatives offered. Alternatives like beling able to havve a permit and practice driving with a well experienced licensed driver or more and better driving classes should be offered in and out of schools! After doing my school project I realized that when I'm not fully developed in the brain, hormones in my right temple that control my senses of what to do and 77% of teens get in minor to fatal accidents and I realized how much my family would miss me so i want to wait until I'm 18 teen and so should you and your children so your family will not miss anybody because of an crash or an accident. So buckle up and drive safe it's the law!!!!! :)
6 complaint(s) reported. Report abuse The solution is to raise the bar, raise bar to get a license, like that age should be something trivial. And when i mean raise it, i mean RAISE IT! i agree with Abraham Magana they should raise it.it could save so many lives. i dont think the age should be higher because when your 18 your almost an adault and will not have any parental guidence and seeing how most 18 year olds are going off to college. The only people they will be driving with are their friends and most people try to impress their friends in college, right? thats why i think the age for driving should not be raised |
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