Some individuals believe raising the minimum legal age for driving cars or riding motorbikes is the most effective method of increasing road safety. While I accept that this policy is good to some extent, I believe it is not the best because there are much better measures to reduce traffic accidents.

Statistics indicate that the number of

road-traffic

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road traffic

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accidents is climbing steadily year on year and that, tragically, schoolchildren are at the greatest risk.

This

situation has prompted some motoring experts to propose reducing the maximum speed permitted, whilst others put forward alternative strategies.

This

essay will examine both approaches and suggest that a wide-ranging response would be appropriate. Making it illegal to drive above a certain speed could undoubtedly lead to a fall in fatalities. Accidents would be less serious and more drivers, passengers and pedestrians would survive them.

This

would mean fewer lives needlessly cut short and fewer grieving relatives.

However

,

such

a measure would frustrate those behind the wheel of a car by lengthening journey times and potentially increasing the likelihood of traffic jams, congestion and gridlock. Governments have the power to introduce other life-saving policies.

For instance

, the wearing of

seat-belts

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seatbelts

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could be made compulsory and

car-users

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car users

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might be forced to

re-take

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retake

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their driving test on an annual basis. Road surfaces ought to be improved and advertising campaigns which raise awareness about the perils of driving should be launched. These relatively simple and straightforward measures would certainly be cost-effective in the long run and would probably enjoy public approval. It needs to be admitted though, that

such

policies require a level of commitment which our political leaders often lack. Having considered the matter in some depth, I cannot see why a wide range of measures should not be brought in. If

policy-makers

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policymakers

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outlawed excessively high speeds and introduced the other strategies mentioned above, far fewer lives would be destroyed unnecessarily. I genuinely hope those in power will overcome the barriers, difficulties and objections and make our streets safer and our world better.