FREE ESSAY ON TEEN CURFEWS

TEEN CURFEWS

William Plemons III
New curfew for teens
It was a very tragic moment last week when two teens died in driving accidents. One of
the events happened to a student of a fellow G.I.S.A school. Now the main focus is on the
future of teen driving. It is a very serious issue, which needs very serious reform. 
Now the Georgia senate is considering narrowing driving curfews of teenagers. This new
proposal calls for sixteen and seventeen year olds to be off the roads between 10 p.m.
and 6 a.m. this proposal had been urged lt. Governor Mark Taylor and senator Phil
Gingrey. Governor Roy Barnes first proposed this curfew. Taylor then proposed another
solution, which would call for 16-year-old drivers to be off the road by 10 p.m. and for
17 year olds to be off by midnight. I prefer this solution because many teens especially
older ones don't have much time after they work or leave school events. Some people say
that we should have a 9 p.m. curfew for teen drivers. This curfew is like the one already
in effect in North Carolina. Their deaths and injuries due to driving have dropped 29
percent. This new bill would also make any 16-year-old driver lose his or her license for
6 months if they are charged with a moving traffic violation. A second would make them
lose their license for a whole year. The new bill also calls for teens to have 40 hours
of driving instructions before they receive their license. Many people think that they
should put drivers education back into high schools but due to the cost many people
disagree. The bill is expected to pass Tuesday and if it passes then the whole senate
could be voting on it by next January 26. Lets all hope that this bill will pass and
hopefully teens will become more cautious, courteous drivers. Hopefully we wont have to
deal with many more of the accidents that happened last week.
Bibliography
Kathey Pruitt, Curfew for teen drivers in debate, Atlanta Journal-Constitution Local
News. 1/18/2001, 2 pages