By Amy Pacas

Entertainment Editor

For most teenagers, beginning to drive is exciting and a breath of freedom to do whatever they want, to go wherever they want to go.

What a lot of kids don’t understand is that it’s not cool to speed out of the lot at 40 mph or brag to your friends about doing 90 in a 50, because according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration(NHTSA), in 2018, speed was a factor in 31% of U.S. teen driving fatalities.

We have all seen reports on the news about deadly car crashes and think to ourselves, “that can’t happen to me,” but car crashes continue to kill teenagers everyday. In fact, drivers between the ages of 16-19 are nearly three times more likely that drivers 20 and older to be in a fatal car crash according to the center for disease control, CDC.

Most of the car crashes and fender benders that occur at South are caused because drivers are distracecd. They get busy talking to their friends in the car, texting, or just messing around. I have personally witnessed about 15 crashes in the lots of South that could have easily been avoided if drivers were paying attention.

 The laws regarding teen driving say that during the first six months of having your license, you may not drive with more than one person who isn’t in your family, and after those six months, you may have three people. These laws seem ridiculous, but when a teen driver has an additional passenger with the, the risk of getting into a fatal car crash doubles. If two or more passengers are present, the odds multiply by 5(teensafe.com).

How fast do you think is too fast? According to a Texas A&M survey, and feedback from south students, teenagers do not consider driving five to 10 miles above the speed limit to be dangerous, when national data from fortune.com shows that even a 10 mph increase ups the risk of a crash by 9.1%.

There are numerous posters and ads out right now reminding kids not to text and drive. This is one thing that is hard for most teenagers who are addicted to their screens, but we need to keep all of this in mind because each day, 11 teens die in crashes caused by texting and driving(teensafe). Teens need to realize that a snap streak is not worth your life or the life of someone else. If you don’t think that texting is too bad, texting while driving increases the risk of crashing by 23 times(NHTSA) and texting increases your chances of rear-ending someone by 7 times(AAA foundation for traffic safety).

Students at South need to see how dangerous stupid driving can be. It isn’t cool to speed, text, or not wear a seat belt while driving. Next time you are honking at your friends in the parking lot, think about how you are getting home.