Why shouldn't a ten year old be allowed to drive?

A poster in another thread pointed out that children are often not granted the same rights as adults.

Is such a thing appropriate?

For example, why do we prevent ten year olds from driving a car? Shouldn't such a privilege be granted on merit, rather than age discrimination? If a 10 year old performs the prequisite number of hours of practice driving, and then demonstrates themselves to be a competent driver by passing the theory and practical driving tests, I can't see why they shouldn't be allowed to drive a car.

 

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There too damn short, to see over the steering wheel of most vehicles, and a ten year old, to be honest just do not have the maturity to operate a motor vehicle, if you want to get in this debate then why are ten year olds not allowed to take a rifle or gun with them to school, i mean a vehicle is just as lethal, if used the wrong way.

 

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That can be rectified. And if we took that train of logic, we'd need to ban *all* short people from driving.

Is there any empirical evidence which proves beyond reasonable doubt that all 10 years old lack the maturity? Hell, during the industrial age, children younger than ten would operate the heavy machinery in factories!

 

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The real question is: Why shouldn't a 5 year old be allowed to drive?? Just because they can't read they still could drive...

A few years back there was an 8 year old girl flying crosscountry with her dead in a small plane, the girl being the pilot. They both died promptly, when the plane crashed for unknown reasons...

 

If they couldn't read, that means that they couldn't pass the theoretical exam. Ergo. They would be deprived of the privilege to drive based on merit, not their age.

So an adult has never crashed a plane? And how do you know that the cause of this crash was her age, rather than her lack of experience?

Wait, maybe she crashed the plane because she was female. I guess Ali G was right. You shouldn't trust a woman to fly a plane.

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How about just male ten year old's be granted the privilege of driving?

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Blind people can't read either, but they can drive a ... oh wait, wrong analogy.

Seriously, how did you come up with the 10 year limit? Why not 9 or 8? They can read too....

 

Treating the incredibly stupid original question seriously, the answer is: because they can not be insured.

Look up teenager insurance rate, then multiply that by 5, that would be the insurance for 10 year olds.

16 year olds can drive a motorcycle, but several times it is the incredibly high insurance rate that prevents them from having a bike, because in 2-3 years they would pay the full cost of the bike. Why? Because the average survival rate of a sportbike for teenagers is 9 months!!! On average they don't live up to a year before they are being crashed!!!

Now if you are willing to insure 10 year olds, all power to you, but society has to prevent itself from stupidity, otherwise it doesn;t deserve to survive...

 

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/girl-pilot-aged-7-killed-crossing-america-1304367.html

"A seven-year-old girl on a quest to become the youngest pilot to fly across America was killed with her father and flight instructor, when her light plane crashed in a storm in Cheyenne, Wyoming, yesterday.

Jessica Dubroff's single-engined Cessna aircraft plunged into a residential street a few minutes after take-off on the second day of a 6,500-mile round trip. Her father, Lloyd, who encouraged her to make the flight, was in the back seat. Jessica planned to beat the trans-continental record set by an eight-year-old last year."
"To qualify for the record, Jessica was expected to fly the plane for 40-50 hours in a week. The Guinness Book of Records listed nine-year-old Rachel Carter, of Ramona, California as the youngest pilot to cross the continent in 1994. Eight- year-old Killian Moss completed the journey last year, but Guinness stopped recognising the "youngest pilot" category for fear of unsafe flights."

I specially like the justification for stupidity:

"Jessica's mother, Lisa Hathaway, said her daughter "died doing something she loved".

 

I don't remember how it is in Europe, but here in the States drive up ATM's have braille instructions

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Since it's against the law (or at least bank policy?) to walk up and withdraw money from a drive up machine... Well... You have to wonder. :bugeye:

 

i believe your refering to my post ^_^ but the reason they cant is they arnt adults yet. they may not know the rights and wrongs of the road or pay attention to the road signs lights ect. of course there are some 10yos out there that have the capacity to drive but as a majority or a whole they would fail

 

Why shouldn't a toddler be allowed to control the nuclear ICBM launch?

Whats with discrimination based on age! Down with the inequalities!

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Yes there is:

http://www.actforyouth.net/documents/may02factsheetadolbraindev.pdf

 

But teenagers are allowed to take a driving test.

 

to drive a car under the supervision of an adult/parent yes you get your license at what 18? i cant even remenber

 

Yes they are...but their insurance rates are much much higher than adults. There's a reason for that.

 

In the UK you can take your test from the age of 17, whilst in the US it's more like 18. But according to Mac, these teenagers don't have the sufficient brain capacity needed

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So why can't a particularly gifted 10 year-old be able to take their test? They'll probably fail, but if they don't, surely they're OK to drive?

 

Depends on where you live. Here in Texas, I got a "hardship" license at aged 15, instead of the normal 16, so I could drive to work. I drove a beater company truck 30 miles every morning, and would regularly go anywhere from 80-120 mph. Thinking back...man..that was crazy in that P.O.S...It's amazing I didn't crash and kill myself on those country roads.


edit:

I never said that...don't put words in my mouth. Teens do not have the same judgment skills of adults...as I showed above. A 10 year has even less judgment ability.

 

Just to clear up, in the US at 16 they can take the test and they need to be practicing with adult supervision for at least 6 months. So technically at 16.5 they can get their junior licence with a few restrictions.
People like McGYver who live in the woods and such can obtain a licence 1 year earlier if it is needed for everyday living, like driving to the school because no schoolbus would go into the woods and such. That is the hardship licence...

 

they most likely wont beable to react during an emergency situation in a proper manner hell some adults dont so how a child would react