Driving Age Restrictions in the US
Cecelia Sanders
PHIL250
Introduction
With all the new technology that is becoming available it is no wonder why citizens are pushing lawmakers for more Driving restrictions to be implicated; for example no texting and no license before the age of 16. So where do age restrictions come into play? And does this mean that there should be more laws created specifically for a certain age group. After researching both sides to this question I concluded that the answer may lie somewhere in the middle, instead of placing firmer rules on a driver’s age but more focus should be placed on the drivers individual driving abilities.
Driving Age Limits
According to the website Car-Accidents.com, A majority of car accidents sent to them seem to be caused by bad driving, driver inattention, failure to merge or yield, speeding, racing, aggressive driving and failure to exercise care in passing. So can age play a huge role in automobile accidents, maybe? Some might argue that old people cannot see well or are not able to react swiftly enough to prevent an accident. Other people feel that a teenager are too immature or inexperienced to follow traffic laws and therefore may cause a deadly accident. But what about the middle aged father who has mobility issues and who has caused a fatal accident because he was unable to stop the car in time? And what about the 25 year old women who is having problems seeing the road, in both of these situations they belong to the age range that does not typically apply any age restrictions but they both are clearly operating an automobile in very dangerous conditions. Individuals that believe that age restrictions will help to lower the amount vehicle deaths are using a fallacy named Hasty generalization. Hasty generalization or Fallacy of Insufficient Statistics is an informal fallacy of faulty generalization by reaching an inductive generalization based on insufficient evidence.
The Essay on Legal Driving Age Teens Accidents
Yvonne Sanchez 800112219 Public Speaking 1301 Persuasive outline Final speech Legal Driving Age Debate Attention Getter A. Is premature driving killing our teens? B. Headlines read "Teen driver killed in wreck" High school student dies in car crash." C. In South Carolina 2% of the states drivers are under the age of 18. Those teens make up 4% of the drivers involved in fatal collisions and 7% of ...
Everyone will agree that we are all different and therefore operate a vehicle different so telling someone that they are way too young or old to drive based on their age is absurd. The only way that an age restriction may lower the risk of accidents is because there will be less drivers on the road. Is this law fare to a responsible driver who falls into the restricted age range? Are these laws protecting their rights or violating them and are there other laws that can be implemented that will make the roads safer? I think the solution may lie somewhere in the middle, I agree that age is just one factor that may impair or hinder a person’s driving abilities, but it is not the only factor therefore if a driver falls into the high risk age range instead of restricting all of those motorists the Government should create a stronger education stricter based on the causes of auto accidents within those age groups. If a driver fails to successfully complete this additional education it is at that time that the individuals driving will be revoked or restricted.
Citizens that are in favor of invoking stiffer laws are probably reading statistics such as these ones, if a person was just gathering information on the age groups to accidents they would probably locate info such as, From the year 2000 to 2005, unintentional injury has been responsible for 44% of the deaths of children and teenagers below 20 years of age followed by death due the lack of any injury at 38 percent and intentional injury at 18 percent, while among the infants, deaths due to unintended injury is a mere 4 percent. In 2008, more than 5,500 older adults were killed and more than 183,000 were injured in motor vehicle crashes. This amounts to 15 older adults killed and 500 injured in crashes on average every day. (CDC, 2012).
The Essay on Driving Age Drivers Drive Children
Mathew M Volpe Mr. Bohn Research & Technology April 27, 2005 The Driving Age "Many teens are interested in being able to drive at a younger age, but it is still unclear if they are able to handle it. If the legal driving age is lowered, are we endangering the lives of teen drivers, as well as the passengers with them?" (Think Quest) I believe most people want to drive as soon as they can. ...
So it is not unusual from looking at these statistics that someone would agree that there should be age restrictions in place that will ensure driver safety. They believe that the age limit for driving among teenagers and the elderly should be changed.
The solution of better driver education will appease both sides because it will allow for age restrictions to still be in place but it will also consider the numerous additional factors that affect driving accidents, It will also solve the issue of human rights because it does not force the rules on a driver so if someone fails the only person to blame would be themselves instead of the government having all of the control on the matter.
References
CDC – Home – Older Adult Drivers – Motor Vehicle Safety – Injury Center. (n.d.).
Retrieved December 15, 2012, from http://www.cdc.gov/Motorvehiclesafety/Older_Adult_Drivers/index.html
Car Accident Statistics, Stats, Auto, Fatal, Drunk Driving. (n.d.).
Retrieved December 16, 2012, from http://www.car-accidents.com/pages/stats.html
CDC – Data and Statistics – Older Adult Drivers – Motor Vehicle Safety – Injury Center. (n.d.).
Retrieved December 16, 2012, from http://www.cdc.gov/Motorvehiclesafety/Older_Adult_Drivers/data.
