Driving a vehicle is an essential feature of a present-day student’s life. Most of the teenagers admit that they cannot do without their own car. Children just cannot demand from their parents who are constantly busy to drop them off whenever it is necessary. Many parents who can afford to buy their kids a car cannot see why they shall not do it. Nevertheless, mortality rates in car accidents are striking; annually, hundreds of teen drivers die in their cars.
Despite the disconsolate statistics, the debates on lowering the driving age continue. Perhaps, most parents hope that if their child gets a driving license, they will realize the whole responsibility and drive cautious. Unfortunately, these hopes do not reflect the objective reality. Critics of the driving age lowering argue that drivers education programs do very little to ensure the safety of the teens. Apparently, passing a driving test is too easy in the US which makes most drivers courses look like nothing more than a guide on how to handle a car. Even if we take into account all the theory taught at the lessons, the actual driving experience is still very limited.
Most fatal mistakes made by teen drivers do not result from poor driving classes; they are rather typical mistakes of inexperienced drivers. Take driving in severe weather conditions, for example. Teenagers are much more prone to crash on a slippery road or in the dense fog. Parents have to make sure that kids mastered these and many other subtleties before they have their own car. For this reason, it is important for teenagers to take time and not to rush into the world of driving too early.