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The Corpus Christi Caller Times recently published an article regarding the legal driving age. There have been debates for many years whether to change the driving age to 18, but it has gained more and more tension over the past couple of years. I believe the age should be raised because teenagers need more time to mature and gain experience before they risk not only their lives, but also the lives of others. According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, the primary cause of teenage death involves car accidents. Teenagers should have to have more supervised time behind the wheel and should have to take a more rigorous driving test. You’re not going to learn how to drive by going around the block a few times and learning how to parallel park. Yes, many people are going to be upset by these changes, but there are many advantages to doing so. Some of the advantages include lower insurance policies for parents, promoting safety, teaching teenagers there are consequences for their actions, and most of all saves lives. This will mean that parents will have to carpool their children around a few more years, but it will create bonding time and enable parents to know where their children are. This would relieve stress from some of the parents and possible reduce the number of “Amber Alerts” reported every year. There is the occasional critic when it comes to this proposition. Some people believe that the age should stay at 16, because it will teach the kids more responsibility before they run off to college. Points have also been made that when we focused on the teenagers, we stop worrying about the real threats to society such as intoxicated driving. None of this seems to be able to compare to the reasons why we should raise the driving age. States such as New York and New Jersey have already changed the age to 18, but at the age of 16 you can get a class DJ license, which is very similar to a drivers permit. The only difference is with the DJ license you have a curfew of 7 p.m. every night. In the past few decades, studies have been made in New Jersey that with the raised driving age the rate of teens killed in crashes have been much lower. These are a few of the reasons why I think 18 years old is much more realistic age in obtaining a license. There will always be exceptions to every rule, but 18 seems much more reasonable. 

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Word Range: 386 – 434

Number of Words: 398

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The Corpus Christi Caller Times recently published an article debating raising the legal driving age in America. I believe the age should be raised because teenagers need more time to mature and gain experience before they risk not only their lives, but also the lives of others.  According to the Institute of Highway Safety, the primary cause of teenage death is car accidents.  They should have more supervised time behind the wheel and should have a harder driving test.  You’re not going to learn how to drive by just going around the block a couple of times and learning how to parallel park.  Yes, many people are going to be upset by these changes, but there are lots of advantages to changing.  Some of which include lower insurance policies, promoting safety, teaching teens there are consequences for their actions, and saving lives.  This means that parents will have to carpool their children around for a few more years, but it will create bonding time and allow parents to know where their children are.  Thus relieving stress from parents and possibly reducing the risk of “Amber Alerts” reported every year. There is always going to be the occasional critic when it comes to any proposition. Some people believe that the age should stay at 16 because it will teach the kids to gain responsibility before they run off to college.  Points have also been made that when we focus on the teenagers, we stop worrying about the real threats to society such as intoxicated driving.  The reasons to raise the age still seem to outweigh the reasons not to.  States such as New York and New Jersey have already changed the age to 18, but at 16 you can get a class DJ license which is very similar to a drivers permit. The only difference is with the DJ license you have a curfew of 7 p.m. every night and you are not required to have any passengers in the vehicle. In the past few decades, studies have been made in New Jersey proving that with the raised driving age, the rate of teens killed in crashes has been much lower.  These are a few of the reasons why I think 18 years old is much more realistic of an age to obtain a license. There will always be exceptions to every rule, but 18 seems much more reasonable.