CARS: Teen Car Crashes

By Nathan Woo,

HUB Correspondent–

Late at night, lost in West Davis, Sarah Strutzel starts driving back from her friend’s house and needs to find her way home. She bends down to adjust her GPS, causing her small mini-van to slam into a parked car.

Strutzel now advises her friends that they should have other people in the car deal with things such as texts, calls, or GPS when driving. “Don’t do what I did,” Strutzel said. She now takes precautions like stopping to answer a call. She says waiting until getting to a destination to check a phone is worth it to avoid crashes.

Accident rates for teenage drivers is higher than any other age group, according to the teenage driver crash statistics on the state of California website, which also states that certain traits of being a teenager, such as overconfidence or lack of skill are the main causes of these accidents. Other factors that can lead to a crash include are having more passengers, or just not knowing what to do.

Senior Hannah Nielson disagrees. She thinks adults get in the same amount of car accidents, but it is a bigger deal if a teenager gets into a car accident. She stated that most car accidents are caused by irresponsible driving and distractions. She explained that new drivers often think to themselves, “Oh that’s not going to happen to me,” justifying their reckless driving.

“People just want to be so connected,” Nielson said, describing a problem which has started in the last decade, coming from the availability of the internet and texting on many people’s phones.

Senior Jack Meyer has never been in a car accident. He thinks that’s because he avoids getting into weird scenarios, like getting cut off by someone, that cause car accidents. “Some teenagers think they are invincible when they first start off,” Meyer said. This causes them to be risky and take chances an experienced driver would not take.

How is this problem avoided? Many people think it is caused by inexperience and teens need practice to learn for themselves. Junior Annie Baek thinks that “more severe consequences,” such as having tickets for texting and calling while driving be more expensive, and making teenagers more aware of the dangers of reckless driving will help fix the problem, but Nielson disagrees. She stated making making laws on texting and calling while driving more severe would not help at all, adding that there will always be car accidents and people will always slip up.

To combat teenage car crashes, the Department of Motor Vehicles placed restrictions on teenage driving. After getting a license, teenage drivers are restricted for the first year. These restrictions include that teenagers must be accompanied by a parent or guardian when transporting passengers under 20 years of age at any time for the first 12 months. Driving between the hours of 11:00 p.m. and 5:00 a.m. also requires an adult to be in the car with the teenager.

Why does the DMV target teenagers with the new driving laws? “The department is not discriminating,” stated the DMV. “The change in law should reduce accidents and save lives.”