The document discusses arguments for restricting driving privileges for people under 18. It provides several examples of tragic car accidents involving young drivers to support the claim. Statistical evidence from studies also shows that drivers under 25 have accident rates several times higher than expected due to lack of experience and overconfidence. The conclusion is that restricting driving privileges until age 19 and implementing graduated licensing systems could help reduce the number of fatal accidents caused by young, inexperienced drivers.

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Running head: FINAL PROJECT
Final Project
Roberta Simpkin
HUM440 UC: M7:A2 Critical Thinking
Argosy University
Instructor: Sandra Foderick

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When I was a little girl, there was a horrible accident involving a car and some young
people who did not survive. I didn’t go down to the corner of the block like the other
people to see it but I’ve always remembered it and what I heard about it; young people,
traveling too fast and not obeying safety rules. The question I have chosen is: “Should
people under 18 be subjected to restricted driving privileges?”
I say Yes because there have been far too many fatalities involving young drivers. I
would first like to give my views on this matter and then we will consider the evidence
supporting this claim with arguments from peer-related articles.
My personal opinion is yes, young people under the age of 18 should be subjected to
restricted driving privileges. The reasons I feel this way are many. I’ve had personal
tragedies in my own family associated with automobile accidents, all involving drivers
under the age of 18. I had a cousin, age 17 who was involved in a very tragic automobile
accident a few years ago. The factors in the crash involved speeding, wet roads, and a lot
of other young people in the car. They could have been talking loud, listening to the
radio playing too loud, and not obeying safety rules which would have been a distraction
to the driver.
Another example of a young driver was the grandson of a friend of mine. He too was 17
and ran through a stop sign. An oncoming car hit his car. He did not survive. Another
case was the cousin of my neighbor who tried to beat a train by crossing the railroad
tracks. Another tragic case involved two cars drag racing near a local church. All three
young people in one car did not survive and two of them were brothers.
A friend of mine once told me, “You cannot put an old head on a young body”. When a
young person begins to drive, I feel they tend to overestimate their abilities. Driving an
automobile is a privilege and also requires years of experience. A lot of young people do
not take driving lessons and I am an advocate of that. They are taught by family
members or friends and then think they can just go out and drive.
I would like to see all states in the U.S. make it mandatory for young people to be at least
19 years of age before obtaining a driver’s license. I really don’t see the need for high
school students to drive themselves to school, leave the car parked in the hot sun all day,
and then drive themselves home. I rode the school bus until I graduated from high school
and then I worked and saved my money to get a car and pay for car insurance.
Not all young people are bad drivers. Some are more responsible than others. But
experience takes years and years of driving ability. I don’t feel restrictions on driving
privileges are discriminatory against young teenage drivers. I feel it’s for their own
protection as well as other people too. It is the parent’s responsibility to monitor their

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young teens but some parents do not, so this law would be necessary to keep everyone
safe.
Some teenagers have jobs, but I drove my daughter to her job or if that is not possible,
there is public transportation. I know in other countries that the driving laws are different
but this is the U.S. I cannot control foreign countries. I am concerned with my country.
Teenagers can also drink alcohol under the age of 21 in foreign countries and we’ve seen
where that can lead. Site the recent example of Natalie Holloway who was vacationing
with her class in Aruba.
The following is evidence that supports the argument and I think this evidence supports
my claim. In the article, “Age performance relationships among accident-repeater
automobile drivers”, it states, “It has been reported that drivers under the age of twenty-
five showed accident records that were several times higher than would be expected from
the number of such young drivers to be found among the driving population. It suggests
that there are two factors involved among these young drivers. First, coordination, vision
and other driving abilities and, second, attitudinal factors such as over-confidence and
carelessness”, (EBSCO PsycARTICLES database).
In “Review of alcohol, young drivers, and traffic accidents”, it states, “In the early 1970s,
the drinking age was lowered in most of the U.S. and Canada. As the data on increasing
traffic accidents accumulated, people began to call for the relaxation of restrictions to be
reversed. Between 1976 and 1983, many states began to move their minimum drinking
age upward. Most of this is devoted to a study of the effects of this reversal in two states,
Michigan and Maine. These particular states were easily studied because they maintained
good records on accidents and liquor sales prior to the lowering of the drinking age,
during the period when more young drivers were drinking, and after the drinking age was
raised. The research presented is a clear and well-controlled time-series study of the
estimated shifts in crash involvement and beverage distribution”, (EBSCO
PsycARTICLES database). Also, it states, “Motor vehicle accidents are the leading cause
of death among youths aged 15-25. Moreover, human factors are important in the
majority of accidents, and accident severity is directly related to alcohol. Given that ours
is a society in which persons are expected as adults to be able to drink socially and to
handle themselves competently while under the effects of alcohol, it is difficult to
understand how young adults gain this experience”, (EBSCO PsycARTICLES database).
In AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, it stated, “Young drivers, particularly 16- and 17-
year-olds have been a significant road safety and health concern for decades in Canada
and the U. S. because of their high risk of collision involvement. The factors that place
them at greater risk have, generally, been grouped into two categories: 1) age-related
factors, such as exuberance, risk-taking behavior, peer pressure, and sensation and thrill

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seeking, and 2) experience-related factors such as psychomotor skills, perception of
hazards, judgment, and decision-making. Graduated driver licensing (GDL) seeks to
reduce the crash risk for young drivers by providing novices with greater opportunities to
practice under supervision as well as limiting their exposure to risky conditions and
circumstances while they mature and gain experience. This is achieved by imposing
restrictions, such as limiting unsupervised driving at night or transporting teenage
passengers, which lowers the risk of crashing. Over the past two decades, some version
of GDL has been implemented in all jurisdictions in the U. S. and most jurisdictions in
Canada. Research has consistently shown that these programs are effective in reducing
collisions involving young drivers. At the same time, however, young drivers, who are
protected by the GDL system, continue to crash at substantially higher rates than mature
drivers. The current investigation, involving two related studies, attempted to determine
why this is so--it addressed the reasons young drivers continue to crash, even when under
GDL provisions”, (EBSCO, PsycEXTRA database).
Adolescents are more likely than older people to engage in risky driving practices, and
some young people are particularly prone to risky driving. Young beginners combine
risky driving practices with driving inexperience, greatly heightening crash risk. The
young driver problem is acute in the United States because licensure is allowed at very
young ages, and the path to full driving privileges is quick and easy. Risky driving is tied
to developmental and lifestyle factors and is difficult to change. The traditional
approaches of driver education and penalty-based licensing systems have not worked
adequately. Graduated licensing systems now are being considered by many states and
have been adopted by some. These systems do not address risk factors directly but are
structured to provide beginners the opportunity to gain initial on-road experience outside
of situations that have more driving difficulty and therefore more risk and/or that
encourage risk taking. Graduates are older and on their way to maturing out of risky
driving tendencies, and they will have accumulated important driving experience under
protected conditions. The initial graduated systems adopted in the United States vary
substantially in their features. It will be important to evaluate the effect of these systems
in reducing young driver crashes and to determine which set of provisions is optimal in
terms of both acceptability and effectiveness, (Argosy EBSCO database).
Objectives. We describe intervention effects on parent limits on novice teenage driving.
Methods. We recruited parents and their 16-year-old children with learner's permits and
randomized them from August 2000 to March 2003. Intervention families received
persuasive newsletters related to high-risk teenage driving and a parent-teenager driving
agreement; comparison families received standard information on driver safety. We
conducted interviews when the adolescents obtained a learner's permit, upon licensure,
and at 3, 6, and 12 months post licensure.

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Results. Intervention parents and teenagers reported stricter limits on teen driving
compared with the comparison group at 12 months, with direct effects through 3 months
and indirect effects through 12 months post licensure.
Conclusions. A simple behavioral intervention was efficacious in increasing parental
restriction of high-risk teen driving conditions among newly licensed drivers, (American
Public Health, 2005, 1995, 447-452, EBSCO Psychology and Behavioral Sciences
database).
The field of knowledge most closely associated with the study of argument is logic.
Those terms that signify the parts of an argument are the premises and the conclusion.
The premise here is “People under 18 should be subjected to restricted driving
privileges.” The conclusion is “There would be less driving fatalities involving people
under the age of 18 if the law in the U.S. stated the legal age to drive was 19”, (Argosy,
2010).

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References
Argosy University. (2010). AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety. (2006). 607 14th Street
NW, Suite 201, Washington, District of Columbia, US, 20005-2000, 2006. 181
pp., URL: http://www.AAAfoundation.org, Retrieved June 20, 2010, from
http://myeclassonline.com
Argosy University. (2010). Forbes, T. W., Journal of Consulting Psychology, Vol 2(5),
Sep, 1938. pp. 143-148, Journal Article, EBSCO database, PsycARTICLES, “Age
performance relationships among accident-repeater automobile drivers”,
Retrieved June 20, 2010, from http://myeclassonline.com
Argosy University. (2010). Sivan, A. B., EBSCO database, Rehabilitation Psychology,
Vol 29(2), Sum, 1984, pp. 123-125, (Review-Book), “Review of alcohol, young
drivers, and traffic accidents”, Retrieved June 20, 2010, from
http://myeclassonline.com
Hartos, J., Leaf, W., Preusser, D., Simons-Morton, B., Persistence of Effects of the
Checkpoints Program on Parental Restrictions of Teen Driving Privileges,
American Journal of Public Health, (2005, March, Vol. 95 Issue 3, p447-452, 6p,
1 Chart, 3 Graphs), Retrieved June 20, 2010, from http://myeclassonline.com,
from the Argosy University EBSCO Psychology and Behavioral Sciences
Collection database

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Ruggiero, Vincent, Beyond Feelings: Guide to Critical Thinking (2008). (8th ed),
McGraw Hill Publishing Company
Webster’s Dictionary, (4th ed.), Random House, Ballantine Books, New York
Williams, A., Graduated licensing and other approaches to controlling young driver risk
taking: Risk-Taking Behavior and Traffic Safety Symposium Proceedings,
October 19 – 22, 1997, Argosy University EBSCO PsycEXTRA database