Road accidents are the main cause of death for fifteen to twenty-four year olds. However, the results that emerged from a survey conducted by “EMR” (Eta Meta Research) on a sample of a thousand new drivers are disconcerting. The younger subjects don’t realize the problem, 37% of them are amazed when they learn the number of deaths of their coetaneous on the road, 8% are even disinterested and only 7% are aware.
They don’t talk about accidents or road safety and if they do it is because something has happened to some friend. The reality is that among young people the myth of speed and driving transgressions are still very diffused, they want to transgress, emerge from the group, show their courage and feel “invincible”.
They feel powerful and so they don’t respect the speed limit, they don’t keep the safety distance, they don’t use the seat belts or the helmet and the direct consequence is that they die on the roads. Imprudence is the evil of today’s young people who love risk: they often agree to get a ride home from a drunk friend after a night at the club if they say they are able to do that.
Too many are the wrong models that they assimilate from the media. Families certainly don’t help to solve the problem: very often parents give beautiful cars to their sons or daughters who have just got their driving license. After they have received their own personal car, it becomes very difficult to stop their desire for freedom, so in this way the number of young people who die in road accidents continues to grow.
Martin Luis Zagami 2i
