How do we stop teenage road deaths?

Question

Every time I look at the headlines in my local paper, it screams 'Another Teenage Road Death'.

How can we reduce the number of young people dying in cars on our roads?

Answer 1

1. raise the driving age.........

2. have longer classes to teach more.

3. stricter testing.

4. more parent involvement.

Answer 2

utilize or create more public transportation!

Answer 3

We can't, simple as that. Teenage drivers do take risks, enjoy the buzz of speed and the danger of it all. And yes, it's only a small proportion of teenage drivers that do this and end up getting killed. The only thing that will help is prominent and effective policing ... but we all know that is disappearing fast in favour of speed cameras. More young driver education may help but I doubt it.  I am afraid that being teenage, being a good driver and being responsible on the road can be a rare combination.  But, and before I get shot down, there are many, many excellent young drivers .....  its just the hot heads that make the news!

Answer 4

Many young people simply lack the maturity to drive a car.

They can't tell the difference between a windshield and a video screen.

Answer 5

Actually, the ONE sensible answer came from "racemaster," because accidents in motor-sport are very routine, yet more people die playing football each year.

The reality is this; kids (especially boys), like to drive and ride fast. They usually start when they're about eleven, jumping over things on bikes, riding down steps and generally pushing the physical and mental limits. That's part of human nature and growing-up, and it is driven by the instincts of the hunter/gatherer/warrior.

THAT IS FACT NOT FICTION.

Even if police patrols were increased ten-fold, and the number of cameras increased dramatically, there will never be enough money or enough patrol-cars to police the winding, quiet country lanes where many fatal accidents occur.

In my youth, a favourite pastime was road-rallying, where the young bloods used to compete around the country lanes at VERY high speed during the night. Not a single one ever got killed, simply because the safety equipment in the cars was to a very high standard; roll-cages, full harness belts, safety-seats etc. (No one wore crash-helmets incidentally).

Cars are actually much safer to-day than they once were, but even so, it is possible to make them even safer still at a relatively modest cost.

Those who think that cameras and police can solve the problem are deluded. It's as simple as this; if a teenage driver takes a thirty mile per hour bend at 31 miles per hour, they will probably crash. If they run out of road, and there happens to be a ravine, they will plunge into it.

There is simply no substitute for youngsters been given the opportunity to explore the limits safely, in the right sort of vehicles, and once they learn that mistakes can be made and accidents can happen, then they have a new respect for the dangers and also realise that they are not immortal.

So why, (if people take safety seriously), do we not have recreational driving areas, where the young bloods can have fun, learn all about driving up to, (but not beyond), the limits of safety?

If they spent as much time and money pursuing this sort of positive step, rather than slapping wrists and lecturing people, teenage accidents on the roads would dramatically reduce.

Answer 6

Put up the age limit to 21 before you can set a test.  Its not really a practical solution but I cant think of anything else.

Answer 7

put a roll cage in the car, and a fire suit and helmet on the driver and passengers

Answer 8

Sorry, I hope you haven't lost anyone to this but the reality is you can't stop it from happening.

Maybe making teens more aware of the risks from drinking and driving, speeding and how being careless behind the wheel, can lead to the upper room will reduce the numbers.

Answer 9

Its the modern form of evolution

The stupid and reckless die in car accidents. Just hope they don't kill or injure innocent people

Answer 10

I would increase the age limit for driving to 21 in the UK but sadly I think too many organisations would disagree with that given that it would lose them money!

Answer 11

Increase the driving age to 21. Have them go through extensive classroom instruction and in-car instruction.  Graduated licensing, ban the use of mobile phones while driving.  If they get a speeding ticket or other serious infraction, suspend license for six months with more training in car and classroom.  Finally, the parents should not purchase them a high-performance car to show their love for them.

Answer 12

Parents have the legal right to lift their child's Driver's Licence until that child is 18 or whatever the legal age is where you live.

Psychologists report that a young person's frontal lobe which governs judgement and reasoning doesn't develop until that person reaches approximately 18 - 20 years of age.

Withdraw privileges, use of the car, and teach him that there are consequences to his behaviour. He will grow up to be a better person because of it, although he will despise you for a while.

As parents, we want the best for our kids, but they are still young and lack experience in life. That's why WE have kids. We are older and hopefully somewhat wiser.

Take him to a course which shows the results of people getting killed due to alcohol/drugs and driving (real bodies, real autopsy room, movies, a reality course).Your local Police Dept. or highschool may know of such a course.

All you can do is try to make your son realize the full impact of his actions, and how it affects his family, friends, etc.

Would you rather attend his funeral?

Answer 13

personally i think every teenager should be bought to a rehabilitation centre where they can see first hand what speeding/drink driving and showing off while driving do to people. they will get a real shock. plus personally i think teenagers should not be allowed to drive by themselves without first completing a set amount of hours driving supervised and alot of driving lessons. plus what i dont get if the speed limit is 60mph why the h**l do cars have the capability to do 120mph? its stupid and dangerous.

Answer 14

We can't. We can't reduce it because everyone just finds away to bring it back up again. All we can hope to do is educate our children to think better.

Answer 15

raising the age limit is the wrong answer where i live there are no bus roughts to my place of work and many young people need to be able to drive to get to work. this will cause more unemployment the only way is to encourage there driving in a safe way. where i live they have monthly meatings on drag strips and circuits wher young people can mess around in sefety away from others.

Answer 16

You never will. All you can do is educate to the best of your ability & warn them of the dangers. No matter what we do, some parent somewhere will fail at this and someone will loose.

Answer 17

I don;t think he's been let off. He's pranged 2 cars, so presumably now he's on the bus or walking ( if not, why not ? there needs to be a clear, painful and long term consquences here, surely ? ) where he will have plenty of time to consider his teenage stupidity.

I'm 35 next year, and about to get on a plane to go and race motorbikes. When I think about the way I drove when I was a teenager, it makes me wince - there, by the Grace of God, go I. There is no Silver Bullet answer here, but I do think we could do plenty to reduce deaths. A much more difficult driving test, linked to much, much better training is the most important thing. When I first moved to the USA I was so appalled at how low driving standards are here - people not concentrating, not using their mirrors, confusing slow driving with safe driving - I actually stopped riding motorbikes on the road, and now only ride on the track ! Driving isn't something you either can do, or cannot do. It is a skill which continues to grow, and grow, and we need to teach this. Perhaps the key is a phased driving license, so people develop experience and confidence slowly, instead of suddenly being told "you can do it". The German system seems to work well. However, I think there will always be some attrition here - young men like danger, judge risk badly and thus often get hurt.

Answer 18

Put the age limit up to 21 or more.