Time to Raise Driving Age?

Rising costs, tighter laws make many aspiring motorists wait longer for licenses

(NEWSER) - Turning 16 has long been a rite of passage, but many teens are holding off on that first ticket to freedom: the driver's license. The percentage of 16-year-olds licensed nationwide fell from 43.8% in 1998 to 29.8% in 2006, the New York Times reports. States are tightening underage driving laws even as families balk at the rising costs of insurance and driver's ed. More»

(NEWSER) - A horrifying car crash video graphically highlighting the gory dangers of texting behind the wheel has been viewed some 4 million times online. But experts doubt that it will significantly change teen driver behavior, reports the New York Times. The video-gone-viral has been the buzz of schools since it was produced by Welsh officials following teen advice to make it super dramatic. But the screams, dead baby and bloodied faces may not be having an impact. More»

Limit of 70 is stifling economy, government argues

(NEWSER) - Britain's government—citing major advances in vehicle safety and the fact that half the country's drivers are ignoring the current limit of 70 miles per hour—is planning to raise the speed limit to 80 on the nation's highways. "Britain's roads should be the arteries of a healthy economy and cars are a vital lifeline for many," the country's transport secretary said, slamming the previous administration's "shortsighted and misguided war on the motorist." More»

Oh, and he's been unlicensed since 1977. And couldn't keep right

(NEWSER) - So your blood-alcohol content is 3.5 times the limit and you haven't had a driver's license in 33 years—let's go for a drive! And so a tire falls off—let's keep going 11 miles without it! Western New Yorker Duane Bush is charged with doing just that, along with a bunch of pesky felonies, after another driver called cops after the rear right tire fell off his van and he continued on his merry way, reports the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle. The responding cops said Bush also had a hard time staying in the right lane. More»

Campaign pushes to stop texting while behind the wheel

(NEWSER) - "No text is worth dying over" is the message of a new campaign to stop young drivers from texting behind the wheel. The campaign, being launched today by AT&T, features parents of teenagers who died texting, like 18-year-old Mariah West, who flipped her car into oncoming traffic while texting with a friend, and the final messages the teens received before dying. The last message West got was "Where U At"—not, as the campaign hopes to demonstrate, a sentence worth dying over. More»