Should the driving age be raised?

A report from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety claims that raising the driving age to 17 or 18 would “reduce the carnage on America’s roadways,” said Matt Helms in the Detroit Free Press, and they have might a point: “Drivers age 15 to 20 are the deadliest age group on the roads.” Maybe it is “time to make kids grow up a bit more before" we let them get behind the wheel.

“It is undisputed that driving safety is an issue for teenage drivers,” said Brooks Schuelke in InjuryBoard.com. But “not everyone agrees” that raising the driving age is the answer. “Even safety experts” are concerned that this might take the “focus off other driving dangers, such as drunk driving.”

“In my family, I’m afraid,” said Sue Shellenbarger in The Wall Street Journal, “the convenience of allowing teens to drive earlier has trumped the issue of safety”—serving as “an on-call shuttle driver” was really “getting old.” I even let my daughter get “a provisional license at age 15 to drive herself to and from her school, which provided no bus service.”

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