Changing Driving Age to 18 Can Save Lives | Seattle Personal Injury Law Firm

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With 6 million auto accidents every year in the United States it is no wonder that there are constantly new suggestions to help decrease these fatal auto accidents, and motorcycle collisions that lead to serious injury and wrongful death. One unpopular suggestion, which I have suggested before, I am going to leave with you is raising the legal driving age.

For the older generation reading this post, I am sure you can attest to the reckless and stressful driving habits of teenage drivers. Teenagers are known for their erratic and often times negligent behavior. I, myself was guilty of making poor driving decisions as a teen and was lucky to have never seriously injured myself or another driver. The facts are 16 and 17 year olds simply do not have the maturity level to operate such a powerful machine and they are unable to realize how much responsibility it takes to operate a vehicle.

With thousands of teens dying every year I believe we would see a significant drop in these fatal car accidents by simply postponing the age people can get their license. By waiting until teens are mature enough to handle the responsibility we will ensure safer drivers from the start. Many European countries have driving ages of 18 and also have significantly lower fatal car accidents. While the United States maintains over 6 million car accidents a year Germany only has 336,000 car accidents—that’s a lot fewer zeros.

My answer? Raise the legal driving age in Washington and the rest of the US to 18. This plan will clearly not be very popular, particularly among those under the age of 25- but consider how dramatically the reinstating the drinking age of 21 reduced the number of fatal car accidents I think a change in the licensing age will have just as positive an effect. In the meantime we, as parents, can make our children safer drivers through education and supervision and by helping them make safer choices. We have some resources for parents that can help you teach your teens to be safer drivers including: tips for teaching your teen to drive and preparing your teen for the road.