Georgia+Oral

The Driving Age Should Be Raised
Yes, I’m Fifteen and I can finally apply to get my license, Or NOT. During the past 4-5 years the driving age debate has been popping in and out of the news, but why do they need to change the driving age for people applying for their license? Well the police say it’s because we have too much drink driving accidents from careless drivers. They believe raising the driving age to 18 is going to stop young teenagers drinking and driving and causing tragedies on the road. Well I believe this is the right thing to do and I believe that the driving age should be raised.

Firstly according to the statistics for 2009 the road toll for the people dying between 15 and 19 years old is 39 people compared to the people aged between 25-39 which had 57 people loosing their lives just this year. This shows me that it’s not just our teenagers who are acting irresponsibly but it’s our middle-aged citizens. So if you raised the driving age you would have more mature teenagers stepping into the seat of the car and therefore you would have someone older and more controlled in the drivers seat so there would be less road tolls. The downside to this some may say is that once there children are 18 they will hopefully move out and if they can’t drive then they will depend on us for longer as they can’t drive to work so because they don’t have a car. I believe this is very untrue. You could still get a job if you don’t have a license. What’s stopping you? Lot’s of people walk and bike to work each day. It gets you fit and keeps you healthy and keeps your body in a good order so why not walk or bike. As for moving out of home it’s not going to be a hard thing to get an apartment and pay the bills because you don’t have the added cost of petrol and your WOF on top of your homely bills. So you will have more money to spend on your own things.

Furthermore all up in New Zealand this year there has been 250 road deaths, with 55 of them being in the Waikato region. This is 22% of New Zealand and personally I believe it is a terrible thing as it is saying that we have more deaths on our roads then lots of other towns and cities such as Wellington and Canterbury and they have more cars on the road each day then we do. Also I think that 15 year olds are way to young to be driving as they are immature and argumentative at times. They are learning new ways to twist and turn out of sticky situations and in a car are very entrusted. Take that add for instance on TV when there is a Man and his Wife and their son and he let’s his son change gears and park the car until he gets his own car then in the end they turn up home and his son and his girlfriend aren’t there and the mum is worrying, but the dad reassures her it’s okay and says ‘driving in the blood’. Well I personally think this is a very bad area because everyone has to learn to drive and no one can be expected to be a perfect driver and no one is a perfect driver.

So in conclusion I believe the driving age should be raised to 18 because of all the reasons above such as the teenagers our days are immature and that I think it would help the road toll. I believe this is a great law that the government is considering and that it would make our roads safer. So I personally believe that the New Zealand driving age should be raised to 18 years of age.

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