Shayleen O’Hayre

Op- Ed

               The voices in a class room filled with students as they all talked about their weekend, the room quickly becomes quite as a teacher starts to take role. An everyday thing slowly turns those smiles and laughter of students into a room filled with blank stares and heart break as the teacher calls the student’s name. Each person in the room knowing that, he wouldn’t be in class that day, let alone ever be there again.

               Teen driving has become an issue as to how old should someone be in order to be on the road alone with other people. Do we ever have the chance of getting a clear answer? Parents look upon teens as incapable of being in a car and being safe. The main reason being that more teenage drivers are involved in car crashes every year, and more are killed than any other age group. About 6,000 teens are killed each year.

               Each state has their own laws about driving, how old a teen has to be and what they have to do before they are handed a license to drive. Some states follow the same guide lines about six month with a parent, and another six with a parent and someone else. Colorado is one these states that feels all teens should be six-teen years of age to start driving. Not all states feel that this is needed though; Montana and other states don’t see the need as why teens should follow this. Being the age of fourteen or fifteen was a good age to give them their licenses.

               There is not exact answer as to why certain states feel a certain way; both Montana and Colorado are going to keep teens safe. More deaths accrue at a younger age for teen age drivers in Montana, fifteen is not a good age to start letting someone drive and be responsible. Not saying that Colorado’s laws of sixteen is much better but it at least is helping in some ways. Less death accrued in Colorado then they did in Montana.

               Teens don’t understand the consequences of their actions, a car isn’t just something to get into and mess around. If teens aren’t able to get the concept of safe driving than why do states feel the need to give them permission to drive on the road just because of passing a test. A six-teen your old boy had his license for about a week before he not only killed himself but a car filled with a family. He was in such a rush to get to his friend’s house with the music loud and phone in hand he flipped his car and smashed into a family stopped near him. He took that test on his birthday and only a short couple days later funerals would be held for 5 different people.

That class room filled with students will never be the same, each day they will look around in wonder of how something so horrible could happen. This could have simply been avoided a simple class or six months of rules might have helped.