Teen Drivers: "The law is on my case!"
Early this month in Arizona, a new law was made with intentions to put restrictions for teenagers driving with a Class G license. These restrictions were made so as to improve safety for the driving teen and those around him.
Restrictions made by the law include prohibiting driving between 12 midnight to 5 in the morning except when accompanied by an adult or when from work, school or church and limiting numbers of passengers under the age of 18. A teen who is close to turning 16 (fifteen and a half) may already apply for an instructional permit but the law has increased the required supervised driving practice to 30 from the current 25.
In Oregon, a bill was passed that bans teenagers from using a cellphone while driving. Awareness for this topics is also being raised in Illinois and Florida.
These new provisions in the law did raise some eyebrows and got some boos from a few of my teenage friends. They claimed that it was a violation of their rights.
Though it is quite hard to convince them that lawmakers have a reason and that these people passed thru the thrill seeking phase of adolescence too, I was able to give my friends some facts that will definitely justify the passing of the said bill into law.
Teenage Drivers and Crashes
Contrary to popular belief, majority of crashes that involve teenagers are due to inexperience or lapse in attention rather than to take risks or for thrill seeking. The National Young Drivers Survey reports that 20% of the eleventh graders in the survey reported involvement in at least one crash in a year. Among young adults, one in four crashes in the US involves 16 to 24 year olds with a fatality that is twice as high as with other age groups. Based on mile driven those belonging to the 16 to 19 bracket has a fatality that is four times that of drivers ages 25 to 69.
Studies also mentioned that of all teen (13 to 19 year olds) passenger deaths, almost 66 percent occur when there is a teenager driving. When a teenager drives a car, the risk for injury for child passengers increases by three times compared to having an adult driver.
Why Graduated Licensing?
For graduated driver licensing programs, a June 2006 study by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, proved that the program reduce the incidence of fatal crashes among 16 year olds by 11% on average.
Seat Belts, Again!
More teenagers (two thirds) are killed in crashes than among occupants ages 35 up (48%) because of failure to use seatbelts. Teens are also are noted to use the seatbelt less when they are passengers than when they are drivers.
Driving with the Gang
Teens are also one of the greatest distractions to young drivers. Having teen passengers can create distractions to the drivers who should be concentrating on the task of driving. The fatal crash risk for teen drivers doubles with one teen passenger that he has and almost increases to five times with two or more teen passengers. Compared to drinking while driving, having multiple teen passengers is twice as risky for sixteen year old drivers. I guess this is the reason why adult supervision is required at least when the teenager is starting to learn how to drive. In the year 2000, more than half of deaths involving 13 to 19 year olds occurred with a fellow teenager behind the wheels.
Aside from this, more than half of teenage drivers report being pressured to speed up by their friends when riding with them on their vehicles.
Ring, ring, ring!
Another common distraction is the cellphone. Because more than ninety percent of teen drivers today have a cellphone or at least any mobile device, it is not uncommon to find a lot of them talking on the phone while driving. Almost 70% of the teens who joined the survey reported seeing their peers drive while talking on the phone .
DoZzzzzzz-ing Off
A teenager is also reported to have sleep wake cycles that may make them drowsy while driving making them less of a safe driver. Majority of known drowsy related accidents involve drivers below the age of 25. Aside from sleepiness, teenagers who lack sleep exhibit depressive moods, higher levels of risk taking behaviors and lower grades. This factor makes the teenager more prone to accidents involving drifting off to sleep when driving.
Another cool fact says that when one is awake for 18 hours, that is comparable to a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of 0.08% which is legally classified as drunk. This leaves the teen driver to equal risks for crash.
Drunk Driving
Thinking of alcohol, though teens are proved less likely to drink and drive than in previous years, doing so puts them in greater risk for a fatal crash than adults, even with low or moderate alcohol levels. More than 20 percent of young drivers killed in an automobile accident during the year 2002 were either drinking or legally intoxicated.
Need for Speed: You’ll be Under the Ground Soon
Lastly, the teenagers need for speed puts him in greater risk for killing himself while behind the wheel. In 2005 38% of all fatal crashes involved male drivers ages 15 to 20 who were speeding.
These facts said, I feel that awareness should be raised on the things that teens can do to be safe for themselves and those around them. Parents play a big role in teaching teenagers to be better and more responsible drivers. I for one have learned well from my dad on keeping me and my passengers safe when I drive.
I think that these little sacrifices are better than to learn it the wrong way. Who would mind loosing a few liberties than losing one’s life or taking somebody elses.
