National Teen Driver Safety Week, October 20-26, is dedicated to raising awareness and seeking solutions to unnecessary teen deaths on the road.
Motor vehicle crashes remain the number one cause of death for adolescents.
The greatest lifetime chance of crashing occurs in the first six months after licensure.
The overwhelming majority (75 percent) of serious teen driver crashes are due to “critical errors,” with the three common errors accounting for nearly half of these crashes: lack of scanning that is needed to detect and respond to hazards going too fast for road conditions (e.g., driving too fast to respond to others or to successfully navigate a curve or being distracted by something inside or outside of the vehicle).
The fatal crash rate for drivers ages 16 to 19, based on miles driven, is four times higher than for drivers ages 25 to 69.
Nationally in 2010, a total of 3,115 teens ages 13 to 19 died as a driver or as a passenger of a teen driver.
Teen passengers and cell phones are two distractions proven to kill teens. In 2010, 11 percent of 15- to 19-year-old drivers that died in crashes were distracted while driving.
Teens are more likely than older drivers to underestimate dangerous situations or not be able to recognize hazardous situations.
Teens are more likely than older drivers to speed and allow shorter headways (the distance from the front of one vehicle to the front of the next). The presence of male teenage passengers increases the likelihood of this risky driving behavior.
Among male drivers between 15 and 20 years of age who were involved in fatal crashes in 2005, 38 percent were speeding at the time of the crash and 24 percent had been drinking.
Compared with other age groups, teens have the lowest rate of seat belt use. In 2005, 10 percent of high school students reported they rarely or never wear seat belts when riding with someone else.
At all levels of blood alcohol concentration (BAC), the risk of involvement in a motor vehicle crash is greater for teens than for older drivers.
What Can Be Done?
· Parents need to be involved in teaching their teens to drive. This includes helping them navigate the “practice driving phase.”
· Parents should make sure their teens spend at least 50 hours of supervised behind-the-wheel practice to develop skills in a variety of situations.
· Teen driving rules, such as the number of friends allowed to be in the car with a teen driver, hours of driving, and curfews should be established by parents.
Research shows that teens who say their parents set rules and monitor their driving in a helpful, supportive way are half as likely to crash and twice as likely to buckle up as teens with less involved parents. The evidence also revels that the majority of teens (87 percent) have a parent involved in the learning-to-drive process.
For more information about the top driving risks for teen drivers and what parents and teens need to know about them, see the information on the Mansfield/Ontario/Richland County Health Department web page, or go to richlandhealth.org and type “Teen Driver” in the search box.
The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia also has an excellent web resource for teen drivers and their parents at http://www.teendriversource.org/.
Sources:
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Traffic Safety Facts 2008: Young Drivers. Data from the U.S. Department of Transportation.
Mayhew DR, Simpson HM, Pak A. Changes in Collision Rates Among Novice Drivers During the First Months of Driving. Accident Analysis and Prevention. September 2003.
Curry AE, Hafetz J, Kallan MJ, Winston FK, Durbin DR. Prevalence of Teen Driver Errors Leading to Serious Motor Vehicle Crashes. Accident Analysis and Prevention. April 2011.
Curry AE, et. al. Miles to Go: Establishing Benchmarks for Teen Driver Safety. Published by The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Research Institute and State Farm Insurance Companies®. 2011.
Insurance Institute for Highway Safety: www.iihs.org/research/fatality.aspx?topicName=Teenagers&year=2010
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Teens and Distracted Driving, 2010 Data.