OPINION:Medical science clearly shows that young people's brains simply do not have the ability to foresee properly the consequences of actions, writes RORY FITZGERALD
THE RECENT Donegal car crash is profoundly tragic. While the cause of this particular crash is as yet undetermined, we know that drivers in the 17-23 age bracket are the most dangerous, and the most at risk, on our roads.
The State must now begin to acknowledge the latest science on brain development in young adults. If it does not we will continue see many more such accidents involving young drivers.
Research now clearly shows that young people’s brains develop much later than was previously thought and are not fully wired up until they are in their early 20s. This fact was not known until less than 10 years ago; however, nowadays this fact is virtually undisputed on the back of numerous studies done using the latest brain imaging equipment.
Dr Deborah Yurgelun-Todd of Harvard Medical School has studied the relation between these findings and behaviour and has concluded that adolescents and young adults often have “difficulty evaluating the consequences of what they’re doing”. Also, she says that appearances may be deceptive: “Just because they’re physically mature, they may not appreciate the consequences or weigh information the same way as adults do.” We may be mistaken, she says, if we think that because somebody looks physically mature, their brain is also fully mature.
The parts of the brain that are not fully connected in young people are the prefrontal cortex and the frontal lobe, both of which, says Dr Ruben C Gur, neuropsychologist and director of the Brain Behaviour Laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania, are involved in “the control of aggression and other impulses”.
“The evidence now is strong that the brain does not cease to mature until the early 20s in those relevant parts that govern impulsivity, judgment, planning for the future and foresight of consequences . . . Indeed, age 21 or 22 would be closer to the ‘biological’ age of maturity.”
Another key part of brain development is the coating of nerves with a fatty material called myelin. This myelin sheath allows electrical impulses to travel faster and more efficiently. Before neurons have this myelin sheath, they are considered immature and don’t function properly. Researchers at the University of California at Los Angeles compared scans of adults aged 23-30 with those of teens aged 12-16 and found that the frontal lobes in teens showed less myelination than in the adult cohort.
Therefore, through no fault of their own, young people simply do not have the ability to foresee properly the consequences of their actions. However, the State does have the ability to foresee the consequences of giving people without fully developed brains untrammelled access to large, powerful automobiles.
The science underpinning these conclusions only became known in the past 10 years or so. However, its implications are clear: young people, due to their natural development, essentially have a sort of impairment that prevents them from being able to foresee fully the consequences of their actions and properly to exercise judgment and restraint. (Looking back at how I used to drive in my late teens, it is clear that I was no exception.)
What the State must now realise is that no amount of driver training or dramatic ad-campaigns can ever overcome this biological fact. However, it would be draconian to delay the legal age for driving until 21 or 23 when the brain is fully developed. Cars are vital for many young people to get to work, especially in rural areas. The best solution would be to make it law that no person under 23 may drive a car with more than 80bhp. Such a car would function perfectly well, but would be unable to reach the speeds or perform the overtaking manoeuvres that so often result in the deaths of young people on our roads.
Driving a small, light car also gives the driver a far more real impression of speed than a larger vehicle. Larger vehicles, especially with modern suspension, often give such a smooth ride that you can feel insulated from the road and can find yourself travelling a lot quicker than you think.
The lightness of such cars also means that other road users would, by virtue of Newton’s third law, be protected from the more dangerous driving that will inevitably result from a group of people on our roads who, unavoidably, have little driving experience and, by virtue of the fact that their brains are not yet fully developed, will always pose a greater risk to others.
Rory Fitzgerald is a journalist and lawyer. He lives on the south coast of Ireland and writes primarily for British, Irish and American periodicals on legal, religious and political matters