Casey Gerry Law Blog

The recent spate of car accidents involving teens in North San Diego County reaffirm what we already knew: teen drivers are dangerous.

At least seven people have been killed locally since September in accidents involving teenagers. What’s to blame?  Speed, alcohol, inattention, peer pressure  -- and inexperience. “It’s frustrating. We’ve been hit hard, and I don’t know exactly what we could address,” said California Highway Patrol Officer Eric Newbury. “They’re driving over their heads, experimenting with alcohol, driving when they’re not supposed to be driving.

The statistics on teen drivers are startling. Teens are four times likelier to crash than older drivers.  Both male and female driver aged 16 to 19 have the highest average annual accident and traffic violation rate.

Even more alarming, car crashes are the number one cause of teen death, taking over 4,000 young lives each year. Young drivers are also lethal to others. In fact, AAA has analyzed the last decade of crash data by its AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety and found that  teenage drivers are at least twice as deadly to other people as they are to themselves.

Experts say parents need to decide when their children have the maturity to be safe drivers.  Which raises some interesting questions. Should the driving age be pushed back to 18?   Many experts say YES.  According to Adrian Lund, president of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, a research group funded by the auto insurance industry, “when we look at the research, raising the driving age saves lives."

Another good reason to raise the driving age: research shows that the teen brain is undergoing dramatic development – and especially prone to distraction and peer pressure.

Not surprisingly, a movement is underway to change the driving age. In May, members of Congress proposed new drivers’ license standards that would set a minimum unrestricted driving age for the entire nation at age 18. Currently, drivers’ license requirements are handled on a state-by-state basis. Those opposed to the new law maintain it limits states' rights and discriminates against teenagers, many of whom need to drive to work and school.

The bottom line? Whatever a teen driver’s age, parents are an important  key to safe drivers. Parents need to speak frankly about staying safe behind the wheel, set stringent rules and enforce these with a parent-teen contract -- hopefully steering their child toward the road to safe driving.