There was a recent editorial on teen driving on teenspeakonline.com and it addressed the new driving laws in Illinois as well as the ineffectiveness that they expect them to have. This editorial says that teen drivers are not necessarily bad ones but rather they make poor decisions. Hmmm … this is no new news to many people.

The editorial goes on to say that teen drivers are a bigger risk because they put themselves into more and more risky driving situations. Yes, this is definitely true and then the editorial goes on to say politicians are well-meaning in their approval and passing of newer, stricter driving laws but that they are not going to do any good. Now this is where things get a little interesting.

The teen writing this editorial goes on to say that the new laws are increasing the waiting time a teen has in order to receive their license but not increasing the practice time requirement. They believe that the extra wait time infers the need for additional practice time. This is likely accurate because it is definitely hopeful that teens will not just sit around waiting for the magical day but rather do something constructive like practice.

This teen editorial goes on to say that the new laws which increase the restriction of driving with more than one teen passenger in the car is getting bumped from 6 months to a year and teens do not understand this law. This editorialist continues on that their driver’s education class just spouts off the new laws but does not talk about the “whys” of it all. Ok, this is where the teen starts to make excuses for their generation. Basically the gist is that because teens don’t understand some of the laws that mean they are going to break them anyway. What?

Teenagers want adults to give them some credit (meaning common sense) when it comes to driving and yet the teen editorialist is basically pleading some type of ignorance saying that teens don’t understand why some of these laws are being put in place? Teens are savvy and they know exactly why these laws are being passed – because their peers are being killed!