My name is Angelina and I’m an intermediate student from Auckland, New Zealand. For a multitude of reasons, I strongly believe that people should be able to start driving at the age of 15.

I’m writing this petition because I understand that people have to be at least 16 to drive now, but I believe that there should be exceptions for people under different circumstances.

Letting responsible 15-year-olds drive would be very reasonable as there are people under different circumstances. Some people might be facing a harder situation than others and that might need their driver's license to commute around. For example, If a 15-year-old needs to do a part-time job to contribute to his/hers family’s expenses then having a driver’s license would be very convenient. By doing these kinds of things, it demonstrates a certain level of maturity and responsibility as not many 15-year-olds would think about contributing to their family’s expenses. Being able to drive means that they wouldn’t need to rely on their parents and they wouldn’t need to waste time on public transportation (public transports takes a long time).     

Some may say that 15-year-olds are too immature to be driving. But, have you ever thought about how much the crash rates decreased/increased since 2011 (the year that the legal driving age was changed to 16)? In fact, in 2010 three thousand two hundred and thirty-one vehicles were involved in car accidents and in 2019 there were four thousand and seventy-six vehicles. So by comparison car accidents haven’t actually decreased after the legal driving age was raised but instead, it has increased.

Imagine this, you’re 15 years old now and babysitting a group of children. While babysitting, two of them fall off the stairs and hit their head on the side of a table. You call the ambulance and they tell you that they’re very busy now and won’t be able to arrive for another hour. A large amount of blood starts gushing out of their head wounds and you don’t know if they’ll be able to survive for another hour. The other kids start screaming and you can’t do anything about it. You think about walking to the hospital but you won’t be able to carry both of them and bring the other kids at the same time. Wouldn’t it be easier if you were allowed to drive? If you can be responsible for other children at the age of 14, why can’t you be responsible for your own life at 15? This is another reason why I believe that people should be able to drive at 15. Even if you aren’t a babysitter, what if other people in the house needs to be moved suddenly?

I think we could add a few more restrictions for 15-year-olds driving if people think it’s too young to drive. An example of this would be to make it compulsory for going to driving schools or getting taught by professionals instead of being taught by family members and friends who may not be good drivers themselves. Being taught by professionals means that they will be better drivers and have more experience when facing complicated situations. 

To conclude, these are the reasons why I believe that 15-year-olds should be allowed to drive. Some people thought that after the legal driving age was raised there would be fewer car accidents. Contrarily, it has increased by 26%! People over the age of 14 can be responsible for children's lives so I truly believe that 15-year-olds should be trusted with their own lives. 

You have the power to change the driving age!

Angelina