In the state of Tennessee, a teenager who is 14.5 years of age can apply for a learner’s permit. At 16, that same kid can be licensed to drive unsupervised with no more than one other person in the car between 6 a.m. and 11 p.m. This graduated license law has been in effect for ten years, and authorities say that fatalities have been dropping. But what exactly does that mean?
According to an Allstate Insurance survey conducted in 2008, Tennessee ranked sixth in the nation for fatal accidents involving teen-aged drivers. In 2005, there were 136 accidents on the state’s road for every 1,000 drivers between the ages of 15 and 24. By 2009, that number had dropped to 111. Is that safe enough?
Jacqueline Gillian, vice president of the Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, a nonprofit group out to see a higher minimum driving age would, undoubtedly, say no. Gillian was quoted in an article for the Insurance Journal. “This is a major public health problem. Teens are dying on our roads. This happens every day, in every community in the country.”
Without question, it’s more convenient for the parents, and for the family as a whole, to have a teenager with a driver’s license. That’s one more driver to get the other kids where they need to be, one more person to run errands — and for the harried adults, it’s a matter of being emancipated from their teen’s schedule.
But, is it safe? Certainly a teenager is mechanically capable of driving a vehicle and there is the argument that at that age, their reflexes and vision are at their peak. The issue, however, would be their judgment — as it applies to a whole range of issues — speed, responsible handling, and avoiding the temptations of distracted driving.
In general, insurance companies are in full agreement that teen and young adult drivers are a high risk category. In fact, a number of companies reward parents with lower premiums for installing monitoring and tracking devices on their kid’s car.
It’s a difficult question, but the Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety make a good case and the figures bear them out. Older drivers are safer drivers. Statistics can point to an improvement in the numbers, but in Tennessee at least, there are still 111 teenagers per 1,000 drivers losing their lives in the state. Every one of the 222 parents involved in that equation would take back inconvenience to have their child back.