New Zealand’s legal driving age has raised from 15-year-old to 16-year-old since 1st August 2011. However, there are many people thinks 16-year-old is still too young to drive. According to a survey of 2300 people conducted by the NZ Herald News, it is not surprised to see the result which 80 per cent of them want the legal driving age raised to at least 18.
There are many factors why people under age 18 shouldn’t drive, here it covers three of them. The first argument will be about young drivers crash facts; the second argument will be about researches of teenagers’ brain; the third argument will be about teenagers drunk driving and ease of getting distracted.
The most straight forward reason for driving age should be raised is that teenagers are most likely to cause an accident by being immature, inexperienced, speeding, drinking, and getting distracted. According to the report from Ministry of Transport, drivers in the 15-19 year age group are approximately two times more likely to be involved in fatal or injury crashes compare to the drivers in 20-24 year age group. The report says, “15-19 year-old drivers make up just 6 percent of all licensed car drivers. Yet, between 2008 and 2010, 15–19 year-old drivers accounted for 14 percent of all drivers involved in minor injury crashes, 14 percent of drivers in serious injury crashes, and 13 percent of drivers involved in fatal crashes”
It is not only in New Zealand that younger driver tend to cause more accident, but also it has similar trends in United States. There are statistics showed that “over the 5000 teenagers die each year in car accident, 3000 of them didn’t have their seat belts on; fatality rate for teenagers compared to adults is 4 to 1.”
Therefore, by increase the driving age, it is very likely to reduce accident and number of death.
Brain researchers in the National Institute of Health have discovered that one of the reasons, that16-year-old is danger on the road, is because their brain, especially the part called “the executive branch” is not fully developed. The executive branch, otherwise known as the dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex, is the part that weighs risks, makes judgment and controls impulsive behavior. The research at the National Institute of Health has found that “a 16-year-old's brain is generally far less developed than those of teens just a little older”.
Science had clearly indicated that the problem is human biology, which means it is nature for teenager to make dangers decision on road based on careless attitudes and rash emotions. Unfortunately, nothing could change it but time for teenager to grow older.
Drunk driving is one of the significant problems among teenage drivers. New Zealand teenagers under 18 are allowed to drink alcohol only inside private residence and with parent supervision, but it is obvious that some teenager didn’t follow the law, and sometimes they don’t know when to stop drinking. A report showed there were 2300 teenagers caught drunk driving since 2007 in New Zealand, 12 of them had more than 1000ml of alcohol in their blood which is about 12 times the legal adult limit. It is somehow related to the previous argument, which young drivers tend to make an inappropriate decision. Young drivers knew the risks of driving after consuming alcohol yet made the decision to drive after drinking.
It is said that young people are generally more likely to be distracted by mobile media devices or by other teenage passenger. A statistic observed in United State that 40% of 16-year-old drivers involved in fatal crashes in 2003 had more than one teen passenger, and the risk of dying increase if the passenger is a male.
In New Zealand, on 28 May 2011, a boy called Shaun Nilson was killed in an accident by his peer friends Levi Elliott who’s 16 back then. Shaun was a passenger in the car, and Levi was more than five times over the adult drink-drive limit. This is just one of the examples of worst combination, a drunk-drive teenager and other male teenager.
Raising driving age is all about safety, it is obvious that teenage drivers are not only danger to themselves, but also danger to other drivers on the road.
The three arguments are somehow related to each other. 16-year-old brain is not fully developed so they make bad decision and driving drunk, as a result accident happened. Arguments above have provided sufficient statistical data, and scientific reason to show that 16-year-old is not old enough to be put behind the wheel. Therefore, by raising the legal driving age to 18, it should decrease teenager’s tragedy on the road.
Raising driving age is just one of the steps to make road safer, the best way might be start teaching kids how to drive around 15 with supervision, so that by the time they are 18 and old enough to get driver license, they already have three years of experience.
