Kansas City Star recently quoted a study by an insurance industry group which suggests raising the driving age to seventeen or eighteen.  The report cites that "the rate of crashes, fatal and non-fatal, per mile driven for sixteen-year-old drivers is almost ten times the rate for drivers ages thirty to fifty-nine."  Additionally, the report cites that many industrialized countries in Europe, as well as certain states throughout the country, have a driving age of seventeen or eighteen. 

I certainly don't doubt the statistics that the rate of car accidents is much higher among sixteen-year-old drivers.  However, I see no evidence indicating that increasing the driving age would make the roads significantly safer.  The one issue that the study does not address is whether incidents of car wrecks occur less frequently with seventeen- and eighteen-year-olds because they are more mature, or rather, because they have gained a year or two of valuable driving experience.  As a St. Louis injury attorney specializing in car accident cases, I very rarely handle cases with a sixteen-year-old driver.  It is quite clear to me that drivers at any age can be inattentive. 

If you have been injured in a car accident and would like to further discuss your case, please feel free to contact St. Louis injury attorney Josh Myers.  It is always free to discuss your case, and there is never any fee until we recover on your behalf.