SOME incidents involving teen drivers can be attributed to immaturity. In the vast majority of incidents involving teen drivers however, inexperience is the most significant contributing factor. It is dangerous to be a new driver, period. It doesn't matter how old you are when you start driving . . . if you can survive the first few years of driving, you are doing pretty darn good. There is a reason that insurance companies charge higher rates for the first several years. They don't tie those rates to AGE, by the way. It is coincidental that teenagers pay high insurance rates . . . if you get your first driver's license at age 30, your insurance at age 31 would cost as much as if you were 17 and got your first license at 16. When I was 20 years old, I was already considered to be an experienced operator because my insurance company defined experienced as licensed for 6 years or longer. I had a perfect driving record then (still do), and paid the lowest insurance rates of anybody in the state, at the time. Most 20-year-olds have only been behind the wheel for a few years, but I had 6 years of driving experience already. I paid really LOW insurance rates because of it, and I was only 20 at the time. -Dave
