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Insurance Industry Proposes Raising the Driving Age to 17 or 18
By Lily Garza
September 15, 2008
A long-standing American rite of passage may be on the way to change as an auto safety group urges states to raise the legal driving age of teens to 17 or even 18. The Insurance Institute of Highway Safety, a research group funded by the auto insurance industry, proposed changing the state laws due to research showing that car crashes are the leading cause of death among teens.
While acknowledging that such a change is a "tough sell," the institute's president insists that it will save lives and presented the proposal to the annual conference of the Governors Highway Safety Association in Scottsdale, Arizona on September 9.
As expected, teens are not pleased with the idea. For many it is seen as a "growing-up" experience and one of their first tastes of adult legal rights. Even parents have mixed feelings about the change, wanting their kids to be safe but not wanting to chauffer them around until the age of 18.
"Do we really want our kids dependent upon parents for virtually everything until they go to college, can vote and serve their country?" asked Margaret Menotti, a mother in Uxbridge, Mass., according to the Associated Press.
Many parents feel that driving is the first step in teaching their kids independence, trust and responsibility. Also, some parents find it frightening that this topic would arise at the same time that a group of college presidents proposed to lower the drinking age to 18.
The Institute's main selling point for this change comes from decades of research comparing New Jersey, the only state where the driving age is 17, to the rest of the country. Several studies have shown that the rate of teens killed in car crashes is consistently lower in New Jersey than in surrounding states.
One bridge to this issue is graduated licensing, which has been instated in many states over the last 15 years. This system requires teens to spend more time driving with licensed adults and sometimes forbids them to drive at night or with cell phones until they are 18. Exact requirements for graduated licensing vary from state to state.
But even the Insurance Institute acknowledges that there are other options for making teen drivers safer. Rather than raising the driving age, imposing stricter laws for teen drivers and harsher punishments for those involved in "moving violations" has also been discussed.
Pittsburgh area teen drivers involved in accidents must attend a "reality education" program that requires them to spend time in a local hospital to tour intensive care units and talk with other young drivers who have been seriously injured in car crashes.
Still others argue that debating about teen drivers is just a diversion from more serious threats on the road. According to the Associated Press, Karen Sternheimer, a University of Southern California sociologist who studies accident statistics, cited federal data from 2007 showing that drivers ages 25 to 34, as well as those ages 45 to 64, were nearly twice as likely to be involved in alcohol-related fatalities as 16- to 20-year-old drivers.
"The intense focus on teens diverts our attention from the real threats to public safety: speeding and driving while intoxicated," she said.
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