September 19, 2016

Dear Future President,

As a 17 year old, I know from experience how exciting it is to pass your drivers' test and receive your license. After all the classes and test drives, it feels so rewarding. My only issue is that licenses should be rewarded to those teens that are good drivers, and not to everyone that can drive around for ten minutes and park in an empty parking lot. Many teens on the road today should not be allowed to drive due to poor concentration, insufficient training or practice, or deficient skills. I believe that the driving test should be stricter and harder.

I never brag, but I pride myself on being a very good driver for my age. I should not be scared to drive around other teens, but I am. I am truly terrified to park in my school’s parking lot due to other students’ inability to properly park. Teenagers should not be allowed a license if they cannot park without hitting another car or become distracted easily with things inside or outside a car or don’t understand that speed matters depending on conditions. According to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Research Institute, “Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for U.S teens” and “In 2013, 2,163 teens in the United States ages 16-19 were killed and 243,243 were treated in emergency departments” due to car accidents. So not only are there minor accidents in high school parking lots, but teen drivers ages 16 to 19 are almost three times more likely than older drivers to be in or cause a fatal crash. Poor teenage drivers are not only putting their own lives in danger, but also any other drivers on the road.

From personal experiences, I have seen many teens who not only do not know how to park well, but also have poor critical thinking on the freeway. When you are going that fast, you need to have good and quick judgment about where you are going. Recently in Detroit there were ten teens driving home in a van from Cedar Point in Ohio when the driver, age 17, became tired and wanted to switch with another teen. They decided that it was okay to switch spots while on the freeway going 70 miles per hour. How could that outcome ever turn out well? The van ended up swerving across the lanes, ejecting two of the kids, and putting the remaining eight passengers in the hospital. Did the drivers not know that he or she was able to pull over on the shoulder? Were these teens not taught that or did they believe they could do the impossible? 

Even though there has been new ways to help new drivers like the multiple stage license system, the initial road test should be more rigorous. There should be multiple parking spots, the student should park multiple times in each spot, there should be real cars while they park, not cones, students should drive for a longer period of time on the freeway, go through many different areas to see different traffic signs to make sure the driver knows what different signs mean. Experience is important, but teens need to practice and be more prepared before they go out on the road. I know this may not be on the top of your to do list, but there must be something more you could do to help to improve young drivers' skills and keep the roads safer.

Sincerely,

Dana McDowell