Thread: Feds May Raise Driving Age for Teens

Feds May Raise Driving Age for Teens
By Seth Fiegerman

To any teenagers reading this: Enjoy your driving privileges while you can.

New legislation is currently being considered in the Senate that would rewrite America’s driving laws for teens. If approved, states would be forced to conform to a national minimum driving age, much in the same way that we now have a national drinking age. Under the new law, teens would not be able to receive a learner’s permit until they turned 16 and could not receive a full driver’s license until at least 18.

“Three Democratic senators are pushing legislation to create a national graduated driver licensing (GDL) law. They say it would replace a patchwork of state laws with a single national standard that encompasses proven safety policies for novice drivers,” USA Today reports.

Right now, some states like Iowa and Kansas allow teens to get learner’s permits when they are 14. That may sound too young to some but others like Rob Foss, the director of the Center for the Study of Young Drivers, point out that driving is much different in these rural states. “Driving in New Jersey is a completely different thing than driving in Nebraska or Idaho. You have states where people learn to drive on the farm at 12 or 13. You can't have the same rules in those states as in states like Connecticut or New Jersey,” he told USA Today.

Last week, we reported on a movement in South Carolina to restrict driver’s licenses for teens who drop out of school or miss too many classes. Several readers noted then that they do not think kids should be able to get behind the wheel of a car until they are at least 16 and one commenter actually suggested the age should be 25. That certainly seems a bit extreme to us, but the underlying question is valid: When are kids really mature enough to drive? Oddly enough, for some states, the minimum age to get a learner’s permit is 14 1/2 or 15 1/2. The six-month increment seems strange to us, and it’s probably annoying for the traffic cop who is forced to do math when writing a teen a ticket.

What do you think? Should there be a standard minimum driving age across the country, or should states get to decide what’s appropriate for their teens?

http://www.mainstreet.com/article/fa..._ven=msnetzero

I say yes, because even though where they live may be rural, that doesn't stop them from driving in a city at 14 years old -- and at 14 years old, I know I didn't have the maturity/experience to make the best decisions...

I know a lot of kids who have afterschool or weekend jobs - how do they get to work if they only have a learners permit which requires a passenger who is a icensed driver over 18... or is it 21 ?

Originally Posted by Jolie Rouge

I know a lot of kids who have afterschool or weekend jobs - how do they get to work if they only have a learners permit which requires a passenger who is a icensed driver over 18... or is it 21 ?

You either need a friend or family member to drive you.

That is pretty much a universal problem unless you live in a city and are able to walk everywhere.

I agree with you on the text messaging and cell phones...

Car Crashes Leading Cause of Teen Deaths in U.S.
By HealthDay Reporter Steven Reinberg -- 45 mins ago

WEDNESDAY, May 5 (HealthDay News) -- Of the more than 16,000 teenagers who die in the United States each year, most are killed in automobile accidents, but murder, suicide, cancer and heart disease also take their toll, a new government report finds. In fact, among black male teens, homicide is the leading cause of death, said report author Arialdi M. Minino, a statistician at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics. "This is a group of people we don't pay much attention to when we talk about mortality," Minino said. Teen deaths account for less than 1 percent of all deaths per year in the United States, he noted.

Still, Minino thinks that more needs to be done to cut the number of teenage deaths. "These are preventable causes of death," he said. "So, this is a group where we can extend ourselves so kids won't die, by extending common sense ideas."

Each year in the United States, an estimated 16,375 children between the ages of 12 and 19 die. Nearly 50 percent die in accidents, with car crashes accounting for more than one-third of all deaths, Minino found. But among black male teens, murder is the leading cause of death. Moreover, the highest teen death rate is among black males at 94.1 deaths per 100,000 people. "That's 50 times more than among white males. That's a very large disparity," Minino said.

The leading causes of death among teens stayed the same during the period studied, Minino noted. Accidents accounted for 48 percent of deaths; homicide, 13 percent; suicide, 11 percent; cancer, 6 percent; and heart disease, 3 percent. In addition, from 1999 to 2006, the annual death rate for teens has remained constant, at about 49.5 deaths per 100,000 population, Minino said.

But the risk of dying is not the same for all teenagers. Boys are more likely to die than girls, and older teens are at higher risk of dying than younger teens. For example, for 12-year-old boys the death rate is 46 percent higher than for girls. At 19, the death rate is three times higher for boys than girls (135.2 deaths and 46.1 deaths per 100,000, respectively), Minino found. "I wish people would look at these groups with an eye toward intervention," Minino said. Teenagers are a "relatively neglected group when it comes to public health."

Another expert sees the human cost of teen deaths and stressed that even though the number of deaths is low, teenage deaths should not be ignored. "I hope when people read this report they realize how sobering it is and are not falsely lulled by the fact that these adolescent deaths 'only' make up 1 percent of total deaths," said Dr. Karen Sheehan, medical director of the Injury Prevention and Research Center at Children's Memorial Hospital and medical director of the Injury Free Coalition for Kids in Chicago.

When thinking about deaths of young people, it is important to consider the years of potential life lost, she said. "Every one of these 16,000 adolescents who died will never get married . . or contribute positively to society," Sheehan said. "We should be appalled that this many deaths happen to children this age, and we should be ashamed that these deaths occur disproportionately in certain populations."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20100505...FyY3Jhc2hlc2xl

Here you can get a permit at 15..Restricted license at 16..Unrestricted at 17..and full license at 18. So basically its a pain and more money to get it that young. Alot of people, that I know anyways, just wait until theyre 18 to get the permit then you can go straight into license without the hassles. Of course it means you cant drive anywhere until then lol which alot of teens hate but I know myself I was NOT mentally ready to drive at 15 and I didnt. But here you can get a hardship license to drive at 14(like say if both your parents are handicapped and youre the only ride etc)

I think eventually its all gonna be the same but Im thinking their gonna have a hard time on the age. 25 is way to old to be the MINIMUM geez...

Here it is a permit at 15, drivers license at 16 with restrictions untill I believe 17.

18 years old??? I didn't turn 18 untill after I graduated highschool. That's a little ridiculous. Some kids have so many school functions and a job going on and with parents working etc.. it is a great help for the child to be able to drive to help out with their commute.

I know it was nice here a couple times when I sent my DD into town to the grocery store to pick up some things!!

I do not let my DD drive in the city, we live around small rural towns.

Breezin I say yes, because even though where they live may be rural, that doesn't stop them from driving in a city at 14 years old -- and at 14 years old, I know I didn't have the maturity/experience to make the best decisions...

That is where "parenting" comes in ... instead of the Goverment making LAWS to control all the people because of 1% - 2% that do not behave responsibly.