EDITORIAL – Teen drivers mainly need time to learn

Yesterday, the auto club AAA announced that fatal car crashes involving 15- to 17-year-old… Yesterday, the auto club AAA announced that fatal car crashes involving 15- to 17-year-old drivers usually result in someone other than the driver being killed – unlike crashes involving elderly drivers, who most often end up killing themselves.

How this study will impact elderly drivers remains uncertain; teen drivers, though, are likely to feel its effects. AAA plans to use this information to push states into creating more restrictive teen-licensing laws. While there is some merit to the claim that teens are, when taken as a whole, less capable drivers than adults, the issue of unsafe teen drivers cannot be solved by continually pushing the driving age back.

Driver’s education classes are useful for teaching people the basics: what different road signs mean, what the penalties are for driving while drunk, how to avoid hydroplaning and fishtailing. Still, the only way to completely learn to be a good driver is to drive. It doesn’t matter what age people begin learning how to handle a vehicle; for the first year or two, they will not be as skilled as those who have been driving for decades. A good driver is an experienced driver, no matter the age.

There are plenty of people who have been consistently safe drivers since getting their licenses at 16 and 17, and there are plenty of 30 year olds who drive dangerously.

It’s likely true that restricting a new driver’s liberties – limiting the number of people hecan have in the car, for example – can help a teen to learn to drive by providing him with a less distracting environment. Pushing the licensing age back, though, only causes harm.

The majority of high school upperclassmen either have an after-school job or participate in extracurricular activities – sports teams, orchestras, volunteer work or maybe even the school newspaper – which require them to have access to a car. Not all parents can consistently drive their children to and from work or pick them up from practice every day.

Also, in most parts of the country, a public transportation system is either nonexistent or not far-reaching enough to provide a viable alternative for licenseless teens. Plus, older teens generally benefit from having the independence that a license provides.

Many college freshmen, even, would be kept from driving to school if the licensing age was pushed back far enough. Clearly, if a person is deemed mature enough to enter a university setting, they must be considered responsible enough to operate a car.

Unsafe teenage drivers are, without a doubt, a problem. They are not, though, one that can be solved by not allowing teens to drive.