the legal driving age. Teens are restricted from voting and purchasing tobacco until they reach the age of 18 years old and teens are not aloud to purchase alcohol in the United States until they are 21 years old. These restrictions are mandated because Americans reason that teens are not mature enough to make responsible decisions. Shouldn’t this reasoning apply also to driving a one ton automobile 60 and 70 miles an hour plus down a highway? Sixteen-year-old teens need time to mature before driving a loaded gun down our neighborhoods.Teenagers are not only inexperienced drivers, they’re inexperienced drinkers too. And when adding the two together it makes a deadly combination. “Drinking and driving is the most often committed violent crime in the nation and a significant cause of death among our youth”(Golden 106). One strategy to deter teenagers from drinking and driving is the Zero Tolerance Law, also know as the “ Use it and loose” law. This law takes away the privilege of driving from anyone under the age of 21 caught drinking and driving. Parents can play a major role in reducing teen drinking and driving by offering a way out. They can sit down with their teenager and discuss with them the option of calling home for a ride when they or whoever else in the group driving has been drinking. The parent must do his or her part though, by promising to not discuss the matter until everyone has calmed down. If Ryan Sanders would have called home for a ride he would still be alive today. Ryan was only 18 and he had his whole life ahead of him. He had plans of going to school at University of Texas and was exited about it. But, one night he had been drinking and decided to drive himself home. On his way home Ryan missed judged a turn and rolled his mustang into a ditch. He was not wearing his seat belt and was thrown threw the window killing him instantly. Police said that if he would have been wear...
