Laws for teenage driving should be stricter to decrease the leading cause of teenage death. By getting their license at a young age, teenage drivers (ages 15- 19) do not fully understand the responsibility of driving and are therefore reckless drivers. They commit unlawful actions like text messaging, talking on the phone, speeding, not wearing a seat belt, and driving under the influence, while putting both their lives and lives of others in danger. However, laws already exist to prevent these types of actions, like “The Teen Driver Cell Phone Ban” in California {3}, but they are not strongly enforced and the punishment is a small fine. This needs to change, the laws need to be strongly enforced and the punishment for anyone caught committing an offense should be more severe. With stricter laws in place for teenage driving, more teenage lives and lives of others would be saved.Driving is a privilege for teenagers, and sometimes that privilege can be fatal. "Car fatalities result in 36% of teenage deaths. That’s more than 5,000 teen deaths a year, and roughly 400,000 are severely injured {1}." How can the United States government let this happen? If states just created stricter laws for teenage drivers, all these statistics would decrease. States can increase the penalties and fines of all the illegal actions teenage drivers commit. For examples, if you are caught text messaging or talking on the phone, you should get a fine of $500 and get your license suspended for one month. If you are driving under the influence, you should be given a fine of $2,500 and get your license revoked for 12 months. If you are speeding, you should be given a fine of $250 and depending on how fast you are going your license should be taken away. For every 5 mph you are over, your license should be suspended an extra month. With these laws in place, it would put a sense of fear in teenage drivers and they will stop performing illegal actions.
Many believe that strict laws already exist, and if they didn’t help before, how would it help this time? Even if states create stricter laws, it should be for all drivers not just for teens. Adults break the laws just like teens do and if the laws are changed, then they should be equal. A lot of people complain that teens are inexperience drivers that are just reckless. But, how can they be experience drivers with all these laws preventing them to drive. It shouldn't be the governments job to create stricter laws, it should the parents creating stricter rules. Also, teens are already careful drivers since their car insurance is really high, they don't want to risk making it higher. With all these laws being created it will just put fear in teen drivers, which would just make them worse drivers. Grace H., a teen for Louisville stated “If you want to put a ban on something that distracts people from driving, you might as well ban everything that could be considered a distraction like [passengers] or food. {2}” On the other hand, stricter laws are just necessary for teens because "teenage drivers are 4 times more likely to get in a car accident then all other drivers {1}."
Speeding plays a major factor in teenage fatalities. In a survey that conducted 1,000 teens, "69% said that they speed to keep up with traffic and 64% say they speed to run a yellow light {4}." That just proves that teens make reckless decisions, which increase the percentage of getting into an accident. There is no reason to speed. you get to the same place 5 to 10 minutes later with out speeding. Is that a reason to risk your life or lives of others? Teenage drivers also drink and drive, which is the worse thing anyone can do. In a survey done by "US TODAY, 50% of teenager say they see other teens drink and drive.{5}" If your going to drink, even though it's illegal to drink under the age of 21, get a taxi or call a friend to to pick you up. Know how your going to get home before you start drinking, don't believe that a beer or two has no affect.
Recently, the cell phone has increased the cause of teenage fatalities. "Seventeen states, including Washington D.C. have passed a bill banning and restricting the use of the cell phone for teenage drivers 18 and under {2}." Governor Schwarzenegger from California was quoted saying “The simple fact is that teenage drivers are more easily distracted. {2}” In a study of teenage driving, "when a teen uses their cell phone 53.8% of the time they cross the line on the road.{2}" Kelly R., a teen driver of Reno, Nev., said texting is a big distraction, “I actually tried it once while driving and got honked at because my head was looking practically at my feet. {2}” The cell phone is a teens best friend, but while you drive put it aside. One second makes a big difference, and the cell phone just acts as a big distraction.With stricter laws in place for teen drivers, the number of teen fatalities would decrease. With harsh fines and stricter penalties, a sense of fear would be placed in the minds of teenage drivers that would prevent them from committing unlawful actions. Teens need to be taught a lesson, and unless they experience consequences for their actions they will never learn.
