There are safety experts who argue that raising the driving age would reduce the amount of serious and even fatal accidents in the United States every year. They think that 16 is too young and that the age should be set at 18 or even 21.
But would it make a difference? Let’s consider this from both sides.
Why do the statistics indicate it may help?
Statistics indicate that this could help, especially when you look at the difference between teen drivers and those who are at least twenty years old. Those who are under 20 have a crash rate that is a staggering four times as high as those who are at least 20 years old. This suggests that having young drivers wait a bit longer to get behind the wheel on their own could prevent them from making mistakes that cause accidents.
Why it might not make a difference at all
The one thing that doesn’t account for, though, is experience. A large reason that those who are older are better drivers is just that they are more experienced. They have all those hours and years behind the wheel. That experience helps reduce accidents. Moving the driving age up means that drivers don’t start getting any real experience until they’re older, so they may cause the same number of accidents at an older age. In other words, an 18-year-old without experience is not necessarily as good of a driver as an 18-year-old who has been driving for two years.
Young drivers are just one of the risks that you face on the road. If one of them injures you in an accident, make sure you know how to seek compensation.
