Adolescent Development: Policy Change for Teen Drivers

Adolescent Development: Policy Change for Teen Drivers

Introduction

The number of car crashes has increased sharply in the United States of America. This crash rate starts when the teenager starts driving in his early teens and remains even as he is well into his twenties. This is a risky for everyone involved in the accident and crash. The first ever policy on teen driving was published back in the year 1996. Many researches have been conducted on the shortcomings of the policy. As a consequence, the policy has undergone many changes over time (Simons, 2008).

According to a research conducted by The American Academy Of Pediatrics, car crashes is one of the major reason behind the demise of people aged between 16 and 20. In the US, this accounts for 5500 deaths on an annual basis. The number of injuries recorded for the year 2011 were 450,000. Of the total number of accidents that occurred, 63% of the people involved were drivers and the remaining 37% were passengers. If we consider the male and female ratio of the ones who were involved in the accident, two thirds were male. The various reasons for adolescent death for the year 2011 are illustrated below (CDC, 2010):

The above figures clearly show that the policy governing the adolescent driving in the United States of America need to be changed.

US Policy on teen driving

Getting a driver's license is a milestone achieved for a teenager who waits impatiently for his journey through the teenage to the adulthood to be crossed as quickly as possible. Or some parent, this means a relief and an opportunity to be able to save themselves from the constant duty to chauffer the child. As per the US policy on teen driving, the safety of the adolescent driver and those of the passenger is assured through the implementation of GDL or Graduated Driver Licensing. There are three stages in this model. In the first stage, the teen is provided with a Learners' Permit for six months (Henderson, 2006). During this period the teen is supposed to drive only under the supervision of an adult. In the second stage, a provisional license is provided whereby the learning adolescent driver can drive without the supervise of an adult driver. In the third and the final stage, a full license is provided to the teen. The minimum age for the full licensure is 18 years.

In the implementation of GDL, different states have formulated different policies and laws to govern and mitigate the risk associated with tee driving. These are based on proposed interventions stated hereunder (Berg, 2006).

An adolescent is allowed to drive without supervision only before 10pm.

With this teen driver, there should be no passengers who are under 18 years of age.

When it comes to drunk driving, the court of law will render the felony deservant of punishment in the form of mandatory penalty. There should be zero tolerance policy in this ...