Sweet sixteen, the day that your teen can apply for a drivers license. It is a wonderful and exciting day for them, but a day that most parents dread to come. Parents want nothing more than a safe, responsible teen driver, and there are laws and monitors that can help them be just that.
As a parent we want our teens to be safe, responsible drivers, but we can not be with them 24 hours a day. Marc Lukasiak a reporter for the Tribune Review notes that, "statistics show that car crashes are the leading killer of teens - more than 8,000 a year in North America." When a 16 year old gets his or her drivers license it is as if they have received a license of independence, freedom, and adulthood. Teens tend to forget about all the responsibilities and dangers that come along with that license. Such as; buckle up it is the law and it saves lives, they are the ones responsible for their passengers and their safety, always be aware of their surroundings, you never know when a car, child, or animal may pull or run right out in front of them, and speed kills, so always drive the posted speed limit. Gary Direnfeld, a social worker in Ontario, Canada said, "we've raised these kids for 16 years not to see them die in their sixteenth year of life." Their are laws that can help teens gain more experience behind the wheel before they get their drivers license.
In many states there are graduated license laws being put in to effect. These laws require teens have more driving experience before taking their drivers test, and earlier curfews on teens .
driving at night. With the graduated license law Carole Carlson reports how, "Pennsylvania .
witnessed a 58 percent drop in fatalities involving 16-year-old drivers between 1999 and 2000." All states should enact the graduated license law to help our young teens drive safer and gain a little more experience, behind the wheel, before hitting the road on their own.