Bertrand's ACE Debate

I agree because kids at 16 don't realize that driving has to be a serious matter. When they are 18 and have many responsibilities, they will realize that it's also a responsibility to stay safe and be a good driver. If you are 18, you will definitely take driving as a serious matter.

Also, if the driving age is raised, parents could help kids that are 16-17 understand how to use everything in a car and stay safe while driving.

A problem with the driving age at 16 is that many teens text and use their cellphones while driving. They like the contact their friends and family. Using cellphones while driving can be a huge distraction while driving. Fifty-six percent of teens say that they talk on the phone while driving. This is a huge number of people who may be distracted. Talking on a cellphone can double the likelihood of an accident as well as slow a young driver’s reaction time down to that of a 70-year-old. Having this happen is a huge safety issue for all teens.

Another problem is texting. Kids get so worried about having a text message and wanting to read it, that they will go on their phone and risk their safety.

Since kids now have grown up with technology, there is more of a chance that they will use their cellphones while driving. The risks of using a phone when driving is very bad and is a huge safety issue.

At age 16, most people are not fully mature. Many teens do not realize that their reflexes and hand-eye coordination skills are not fully developed yet, and they can end up getting in accidents. The frontal lobe of their brains isn't fully developed which is the part that weighs risks and makes judgements. This can be very bad for teens driving. If the age was raised to 18, their brains would be fully developed and their driving would be much better and safer.

I think that parents will worry about their child when they drive places. The parents might not know where their child went and could think that something happened to them. The parents of the child may think that they got in an accident. Having parents to drive their kids to places would not be a bad thing.

I think that the driving age should be raised to eighteen because it will be better for all drivers. Many kids between the ages of fifteen to seventeen get in accidents. Between 1995 and 2004, there were 30,917 fatalities in accidents, according to the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety. About a third of those fatalities were from teen drivers. The rest were pedestrians, passengers, and people in cars that teen drivers struck.

By JOHN M. CRISP, Scripps Howard News Service