Sixteen is too Young for Today’s Drivers

It’s definitely time to reconsider whether kids under the age of 21 should be driving. I live in a fairly small, but growing, town. In less than six months no fewer than 10 teenagers have been killed in car accidents here. That’s way too many and the numbers are higher today than ever.

These young drivers are unskilled, unfocused and unaware of anything going on outside of themselves. Lack of training–most parents are too busy to spend a lot of time doing driver’s ed refreshers with their kids–equals not enough experience. Cell phones, thumping bass, drama and substance abuse create diverting conditions which are digging these kids’ graves at an alarming rate.

If I were the parent of a young driver today, I’d be scared to death. As it was, I probably should have been. And my son was a new driver only 6 years ago. He was careless and distracted but he and his friends all somehow managed to escape with their lives. And we revoked his privileges on more than one occasion. 

This past weekend two 17 year-olds and a 25 year-old were  killed in a two-car crash when one of the 17 year-olds lost control and went over the median. A 16 year-old in an unrelated car accident also died here this weekend. Only a few months back this boy’s brother was the driver responsible in a crash where two young girls were killed. Something has to be done.

And it’s not just about them either. We need to remember that other people on the roads should be protected from incompetent drivers. I don’t know what’s going on around the rest of the country but, if the fatality rate is anything like it is here, the age for driving should probably be at least 18. They just aren’t maturing as fast as they used to and they don’t seem to have a concept of death as real and final.

Parents ought, once again, to be held accountable. I never see kids driving with a parent beside them anymore. They must be required to have many, many hours logged with supervision before you even think of turning them loose in traffic. Another consideration is the state driving test itself. This test is given in the most controlled environment imaginable. There is no traffic, no lane changing, no highway driving at all. Here, it happens in a parking lot outside the Department of Motor Vehicles. What kind of measure is that?

If we aren’t going to get laws changed we’d better start making new rules at home. I can think of at least eight parents whose tears are fresh and whose anguish must be intolerable tonight. And, you can bet, they wish the laws and their rules had been different.