Teenage Speeding In 2012, June and July showed to have had the highest number of teenage crash deaths out of any of the other months. The feeling of independence from getting a driver’s license as well as the freeing feeling from school adds to the excitement and complacency of driving for young teenage drivers during the summer. Speeding is not seasonal, although, it happens at any time of the year with the simple slip of thoughts. Teenagers are well known for a short attention span, and behind the wheel is no exception. Many other thoughts may slice through their concentration while on the road, such as their daily schedule and any changes to it, among other things. A sense of feeling rushed or overwhelmed by the day ahead may also be an …show more content…
addition to the inconsiderate driving by the young driver. Preventing a speeding ticket and speeding in general is very simple, the first thing a teenage driver can do to help prevent speeding is to set the cruise control on their car to a respectable speed, meaning they are maintaining the flow of traffic, but they are not speeding. If the need to take the cruise control off appears, then the driver should not use the cruise control until an appropriate opportunity presents itself. Another way to help prevent a teenager from speeding is have them seriously consider that with speeding the likelihood of casualties is greatly increased with the incline of speed, and the reaction time that decreases exponentially to an incident that appears abruptly. Teenagers should also understand the reason why we have speed limits, which is not only to maintain order, but to also ascertain the safety of all drivers. In addition with the above, teenagers must fully realize the consequences tied into speeding, which includes not only the trouble with the law, but also how it has the ability to affect not only their own life, but others as well if an accident occurs. Another idea to look at is to research the laws of not only your own state, but also the states surrounding. After having received a ticket, I realize all these things I should have held in my mind while driving in order to be a more considerate driver and prevent getting a ticket. Accidents, casualties, and young drivers all equal fear for anyone involved.
More than one third of driver fatalities involve speeding as shown by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Of the young male drivers between the ages of fifteen and twenty years old who were involved in car accidents in 2012, thirty seven percent were speeding. In 2011, speeding was present in fifty two percent of fatal car accidents with a teenager behind the wheel, which is almost the same percentage as in 2008 showing that the issue of speeding has not been improving. In addition, of the crashes due to error by young drivers twenty one percent of serious accidents were due to driving faster than what was safe for the road conditions. The biggest risk that is easily forgotten is that speeding increases the stopping distance required to prevent an accident. At the ages between sixteen and nineteen thirty eight percent of males and twenty four percent of female teenagers are involved in crashes resulting from high speeds. A total of two thousand eight hundred and twenty three teenagers ages thirteen through nineteen were killed in car crashes in 2012, this is sixty eight percent less than in 1975 and seven percent less than 2011. Though the numbers have decreased, they are still there; furthermore they are not just numbers as is easily forgotten, these numbers represent more than a statistic, they represent a life. To further drive the point that beyond the numbers are lives, here are a couple stories about the life of someone killed in a car accident due to excessive
speeding: “A 28-year-old man and his 2-year-old son died Monday night in a fiery crash on Interstate 30 near Lake Ray Hubbard, police say. Jarred Schumpert of Cape Girardeau, Mo., and the boy, Lyndon Schumpert, died at the scene of the accident after the SUV they were riding in was rear-ended near the Bobtown Road exit. The SUV’s driver, Laura Schumpert, was taken to Parkland Memorial Hospital, but her injuries were not believed to be life-threatening. The other vehicle’s driver, whose name had not been released, was also hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries. Witnesses said the crash occurred before 9:15 p.m. as traffic was slowing because of another fiery accident on the interstate, near Dalrock Road. No injuries had been reported in the earlier crash. Investigators say a failure to control speed was a factor in the fatal accident and criminal charges will be considered. Alcohol was not believed to have played a role in the crash. The accidents closed eastbound Interstate 30, but Garland police announced shortly before 3:30 a.m. that the highway had reopened.” “COULEE CITY, Wash. (AP) - The Washington State Patrol says two teenagers were killed and a third was injured in a car crash late Friday in Coulee City. KXLY TV in Spokane reports that officials believe excessive speed caused the crash on U.S. Route 2. Officials say 17-year-old Auston Frye was driving when he lost control. The vehicle left the roadway and hit a light pole. It finally stopped at the entrance to Coulee City Park. Frye died from his injuries, as did one of his passengers, 18-year-old Pedro Huitron. Another passenger, a 16-year-old boy, was taken to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.” The stories above not only show that statistics are more than numbers, but they also unveil the biggest repercussion of speeding excessively. Excessively speeding does not just have the possibility of receiving a ticket; it also carries the possibility of taking people’s lives. A driver should not only be concerned with the consequence of a ticket when speeding, because the ticket has another purpose than to just be a fee. The punishment of a ticket was put in place in order to maintain the safety of everyone on the road. Nonetheless, even though it is imperative to understand that the consequences go beyond a ticket, it is still important to know the consequences of a ticket and everything that comes with getting one.
Statistics show 16- to 17-year-old driver death rates increase with each additional passenger, which is due to distracted driving. Taking your eyes off the road for 2 (two) seconds, at 60 mph, means you have driven blindly for half the length of a football field. The risk of fatality is 3.6 times higher, when they are driving with passengers than when alone. For many years, the correlation between driving behavior and age has interested highway safety researchers and administrators. It is general knowledge that the greatest risk of motor vehicle crash...
“The Brutal Truth About Teen Driving.” JourneySafe. The Gillian Sabet Memorial Foundation Inc. Web. 29 Apr. 2010.
After the incident, I began doing some research on teenage car accidents at the advice of the officer who had responded to the scene. What I read about and learned was frightening. In 2008 over three thousand teen deaths occurred, either as a passenger or driver in a ...
Motor vehicles accidents are the leading cause of deaths for teenagers in the United States. According to Vivian Hamilton, “Car crashes kill more teens each year than any other cause” (1). In 2010, seven teenagers from ages 16 to 19 died every day from motor vehicle crashes. In 2011, approximately 1972 young drivers, ages 15 to 20, were killed in motor vehicle crashes (Facts About Teen Drivers”). The age of which a person can drive legally varies from country to county. In the United State, individuals are allow to take a driving test before their legal voting age which is eighteen or legal ...
“Car accidents are the No. 1 cause of death of teens” says Cricket Fuller, he also says that “a quarter of all teen-driving crashes are attributed to distract driving”. Even though the death rate of teen drivers is going down, an average of seven deaths a day still occur (Kowalski). Debacco-Ernie had said that “any time a teen driver is out on the road after 10 p.m., the probability of them being involved in a crash increases dramatically” (Carr).
Speeding is the third most common factor in vehicle accidents in the US, costing 13,000 lives a year. Some of the reasons behind speeding include: driver's being in a rush, the need for adrenaline, and their belief that they won't get caught, or that laws don't apply to them. Speeding not only shortens your reaction time, but also your control of the vehicle as the faster the vehicle goes the more any sudden movements can affect it causing to flip or slide into another car, which may cause a fatality, maybe not to yourself but to
One of the most important reasons why there are a large number of crashes involving teens is due to their inexperience in driving. According to an article titled “Why are Young Drivers at a Greater Risk”, driver education classes provide only a miniscule amount of the information needed to become a good responsible driver. A study found that there was a decrease in crash rates among teens that got an average of a hundred and ten hours of supervised driving. This proves that teens not only need driver education classes but more on the road driving experience (Why). The article labeled “Teen Driving” discussed that the less experience any person has in driving the more likely they are to make an error in judgment. In 1998, eighty percent of fatal accidents involving sixteen year olds were a direct result of driver error. In the same year more than sixty percent of people who were twenty to forty-nine year olds were guilty of driver error (Teen Driving). The lack of a teen driver’s experience in driving when first licensed is not enough for a teen when forced in...
There are people who would say that teens are more reckless than the elderly. Although it is widely known that teens are often involved in dangerous driving activities such as racing, reckless driving, packing a car past its normal ca...
Teenagers don’t want to be inconvenient with having to wait to respond to their friends about the latest party or school event that’s coming up. Driving is just as good of time as any to text their best friends about the upcoming weekend or update their Facebook status in the mind of a young adult. Even though most teens know they shouldn’t text and drive many are guilty of doing it several times a day. An overwhelming 75% of teens even admit to text messaging while driving (“Distracted Driving,” 2016). Young drivers are more likely to get into an accident due to lack of experience than that of any other driver on the road. Add in texting to the mix it is a recipe for disaster. About 54% of teenage motor vehicle crash deaths occur on Friday, Saturday or Sunday – with Saturday being the deadliest day of the week for teens (Hosansky, 2012). Teenage motor vehicle fatalities are at the highest in the summer months.
Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for United States teens.1 In the first month of driving for a teen their crash risk is particularly high.5,6 Fourteen percent of the U.S. population is represented by young people of the ages fifteen to twenty. However they account for thirty percent (Nineteen billion dollars) of the total costs of motor vehicle injuries among males, and twenty-eight percent (Seven billion dollars) of the total costs of motor vehicle injuries among females. In 2012, two thousand eight hundred and twenty-three teenagers, between the ages of thirteen to nineteen, died in the United States from crash injuries.2 Seventy-nine percent of teenagers killed in crashes in 2012 were...
Although studies by Dr.Masten and his colleagues show, “75 percent of the fatal crashes we thought we were saving actually just occurred two years later,” (paragraph 4). This was stated when the minimum driving age was sixteen and this effected the number if fatal crashes in eighteen-year olds. Dr. Masten suspects that teenagers are waiting to get their license and skipping the restrictions, (paragraph 7).
It has been shown that raising the driving age to 18 can increase the fatal crash rate among 18-year-olds. In Anahad O'Connor's informational article, "Teenage Driving Laws May Just Delay Deadly Crashes", one consequence of raising driving age is shown; "The study, published Wednesday in The Journal of the American
Whether or not teenagers should be allowed to get their driver 's license at age sixteen is a known topic across the United States. One of the causes for this argument is the number of fatalities caused by young drivers. Evidence shows, “In 2012, 1,875 drivers between the ages of 15 and 20 died in motor vehicle crashes and an additional 184,000 young drivers were injured, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration,” (“Teen Drivers”). Most accidents are caused by young drivers. In the United States of America, citizens may receive their driver’s license at sixteen, if they meet the requirements. Some people argue that sixteen year olds should not be able to receive their driver’s license. Other people argue that sixteen
“The one thing that unites all human beings, regardless of age, gender, religion, economic status, or ethnic background, is that, deep down inside, we all believe that we are above-average drivers” -Dave Barry, comedian. The number of accidents over the last ten years have drastically increased, drivers are paying less attention to the road itself. Many individuals behind the wheel of a car believe that their driving does not affect the road conditions, however it always will. The driving habits of today are catastrophic due to the reasoning that the driving will affect other lives through reckless or distracted driving, and disobeying traffic laws.
In the late 1900’s a massive trend took over America. Smoking became a huge hit especially among teenagers. It was cool, and those that smoked sat at the top of the social ladder in high schools across America. The success of smoking and its popularity among teenagers was due to the public perception about smoking. At the time of its success, the public perception was wildly positive. There were claims that smoking had great effects on individual health and that there were no negative side effects. There is nothing more telling about the American perception of smoking than the movie Grease, where the nice girl becomes queen of the school after a lifestyle change that includes the addition of smoking. However, America has changed. Americans