Teens At The Wheel

Teens behind the Wheel

Teen drivers are involved in an alarming number of crashes, which are the leading cause of death among adolescents today. Studies by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration have found that sixteen-year-olds are twenty times more likely to be involved in heavy car crashes and be responsible for them than any other person older than sixteen. This may be explained in part by a recent research which concludes that the section of the brain which evaluates risk, makes judgment and controls impulsive behavior in sixteen-year-olds is less developed than in eighteen-year-olds. Nearly 31,000 teenagers aged fifteen to seventeen have died in car accidents between the years of 1995 - 2004 and one third of these deaths involved pedestrians or people in other vehicles.

Because of these alarming statistics and also because of my personal observations of teens behind the wheel, I believe that new drivers, younger than eighteen, are at significant risk on the road not only for themselves, but also for others. I am strongly convinced that the current law should be changed so it doesn't allow teenagers younger than eighteen to drive. Recently, Illinois lawmakers raised the required number of hours new drivers need to spend driving before they can earn a driver's license, but I don't believe this measure would reduce considerably the risk associated with younger drivers.

Teens at the age of sixteen are usually very emotional and unstable in their moods. While driving they can play loud music, talk on the phone with friends or even cry believing they have many problems in their lives that can't be solved. Recently, I was devastated to hear that one sixteen-year-old girl lost her life in a car accident after an overwhelming break up with her boyfriend. She was crying while driving and talking to a friend at the same time. This person later says that she was begging her distressed friend to pull over until someone could pick her up. At that time they lost connection. The car had overturned and tossed the girl out. Later, the police found her body fifteen meters away from her car. The parents urged all teenagers gathered for the wake: "Don't drive when you are angry or emotional. We just want you all to understand that, when you get behind the wheel, it's not worth it, being emotional."

Younger teens tend to have more passengers in their cars than an older adolescent would normally do. At this stage of their lives they usually have many friends, go to their first real parties and have their first attempts at using drugs and alcohol. Teenagers show off in front of their friends how powerful and fast their parents' cars are leading to fatal crashes, killing not only themselves, but also endangering the lives of other people on the road. This past February two sixteen-year-old teenagers lost their lives in a car accident returning from a party. Alcohol, late-night driving and no seatbelts were the factors that lead to the death of these young men.

Another reason for me to believe that sixteen-year-olds are still not ready to drive cars is that they are nor afraid and even not thinking of the terrible consequences from a potential car crash. Teenagers usually take a grater risk than adults. Fifteen to seventeen year olds still lack the judgment and the experience needed to evaluate situations fast, especially in times of peer pressure, which often makes them take wrong decisions while driving. Most of them have not had a chance to witness a car accident even on TV making them think that something this terrible would never happen to them. The parents of one sixteen-year-old high-school student towed the wrecked car, in which their daughter lost her life, from school to school in their town so other teenagers her age could see what could happen when inexperienced drivers sit behind the wheel. Those two parents took the unusual action to show the car to as many teens as possible in order to convince them of the risk of teenage driving. This sad exhibition would probably convince some adolescents to be more careful, but I am doubtful that the effect for most of them will be long lasting. Without thinking for too long about what they have just seen, they would jump excitedly in their cars and turn on the loud stereo, until the same tragedy happens to them. Many parents have lost children in car crashes, but not many of them would actually step forward and try to influence