Raising the Legal Driving Age

Raise the legal driving age in Florida to 18

It is estimated that 16-year-olds are 3 times more likely to die in a motor vehicle crash than the average of all drivers. Therefore, the legal driving age in Florida needs to be raised to 18. This can be done with the right reasoning, correct process of passing a law, and some problems that would be encountered along the way.

First, there should be reasoning behind making this new law. These are some statistics on teen driving in the United States. Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death among teenagers, even above drugs, sucide, and homicide. It is shown that 16 and 17 year old driver death rates increase with each additional passenger. 14%of all deaths due to motor vehicle accidents are a teenaged driver. More than any age group, teens are likely to be involved in a single vehicle crash, even more so than the elderly. The 16 year old population alone will increase from 3.5 million to over 4 million by 2010. (Messina, Ph.D.)

In order to pass a new law a bill will need to be proposed by a Senator or General Assembly. The ideas can come from sources such as citizens, interest groups, public official or the Governor. Once the idea has been proposed it is brought before a legislator to be sponsored. One legislator may ask others to become co-sponsors, and it will then be drafted as a bill. Now that is become a bill it will be introduced at a legislative session by being read aloud by the Senate Secretary or General Assembly announcing the bill's number, sponsor and title. After this changes will be made, called amendments, by a committee which studies it. The committees have open meetings where the public may speak about the bill. The bill is reported to the House and its title is read again, but only if the committee approves it first. The bill's title will be read a third time when scheduled by the Senate President or Assemble Speaker, and it is then debated and voted on. It will pass if it receives a majority of votes, which is at least 21 in the Senate or 41 in the General Assembly. It will follow a similar path in the second house. Once both houses agree on the bill it will be sent to the Governor. It will usually become a law once it is signed by the Governor. The Governor may refuse to sign it, veto, and return it to the Legislature with objections and/or proposed changes. Sometimes a vetoed bill can still become a law.