Everyone knows teenagers are the worst drivers but can video games make them even worse. A New Zealandarticle (via Gamers Game) says a transport spokesman in New Zealand has blamed video games for increasing driving stupidity and reckless driving behavior in teenagers.
Three Auckland teenagers were killed when the vehicle they were in crashed off the Northwestern Motorway in Auckland during a high-speed police pursuit on Christmas Eve.
National's transport spokesman Maurice Williamson says today's young people think they are bullet-proof. He blames Playstations and X-boxes for making teens think they can drive stupidly and just push the reset button if anything goes wrong.
Mr Williamson believes 15 is far too young to be behind the wheel of a car.
Accident data has shown that teens get in many more accidents. Teens also are part of the demographic with the most auto-related deaths.
Driving is fatal for almost 50,000 Americans every year. People between 15 and 24 years old (especially males) have the highest rate of auto-related deaths, even though people in this age group may be smart, skilled, and have great reflexes. A collision is the most likely tragedy to kill or cripple a teenager.
Teens tend to have poor judgement that increases the frequency of accidents. However, there have been no studies suggesting video games make teens drive any worse than they already normally do. Maybe the transport spokesperson is suggesting that a teenager would try something crazy they saw in a video game but wild car stunts are not unique to racing games. They can also be found in tv, movies and music videos. Some even think video games can improve a teenager's driving performance. For example, there is the StreetWise game from DaimlerChrysler.
