Raising the Malaysian driving age to : Is it necessary?

Year by year the accident rate in Malaysia has been on a steady hike. Various factors are said to be the contributors for this hike. However, one prominent factor has been a topic for debate in recent years. It is claimed that newly licensed teenagers have helped to increase the number of serious accidents than any other group on the road. For this reason, I believe that the age of obtaining a driving license in Malaysia should be raised to 21 years old.

Firstly, at the age of 21, humans leave their teenage years into early adulthood. During this period of life, humans gain more maturity physically and mentally. Mental maturity is an absolute requirement for all drivers.

At a younger age, teenagers are fueled by a competitive lifestyle where everything seems to be race for them. This also happens on road where teenagers strive to overtake any drivers who drive faster than them. In turn, they endanger their own life and the life of others due to this immaturity.

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Secondly, once the minimum age is raised there will be lesser drivers on the road. If we only may get a driving license at the age of 21, then teenagers from the age of 17 to 20 years old will still not be driving. Consequently, there will be lesser drivers on the road which lead to a lower probability for accidents to occur. Besides, the more cars on the roads, the higher the probability of accidents to occur. This can be proven by the staggering number of accidents during festive seasons.

Some may argue that if we are to raise the minimum age to obtaining a drivers license in Malaysia to 21, there will be more illegal or drivers without a license on the road. This group claims that driving is a necessity so; teenagers will take the risk to drive without license. However, a closer inspection of the evidence may reveal that the law in Malaysia enforces heavy penalties to illegal drivers. Even if there are to be some who drivers without license, these heavy penalties may significantly deter teenagers from driving without license and consequently reducing the number of drivers on the road.

As conclusion, I would like to restate my stand that the age of obtaining a driving license in Malaysia should be raised to 21 years old as the ever increasing number of accidents is something that we should curb.