Having a teen driver is a mixed blessing for many families. For some parents, having teens drive themselves can mean less schlepping to and from after-school activities. On the other hand, many parents of teens worry about the fact that auto accidents are the No. 1 cause of death among teenagers – exceeding homicide, suicide and cancer combined. And did you know that nearly one-third of the people who are killed by teen drivers aren’t even riding in the teens’ cars? In another cause for caution in handing your teen the car keys, a new study shows 30% of fatalities inflicted by teen drivers are cyclists, pedestrians, occupants of other vehicles and other users of the road. In all, more than a half-million people in 2008 were involved in crashes where a teenage driver was behind the wheel, says the study by the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and State Farm.
Teen-driver crashes also cause more injuries to passengers and occupants of other vehicles than to the teenage drivers themselves, the study shows.
Teen highway fatalities have fallen 30% since states began enforcing tougher teen-driving laws in the mid-1990s. These measures typically delay teens’ getting a learner’s permit until age 16, then require 30 to 50 hours of supervised driving before they are eligible for a license.
Nevertheless, car crashes still account for 24% of total teen deaths from any cause, and should be regarded “as a public health issue affecting all members of a community – whether they have a teen driver in the family or not,” the study says, citing an example of a 7-year-old Indianapolis girl who was killed when a 16-year-old driver with a provisional driver’s license struck her mother’s car.
Education and awareness is the key to changing behavior.
- 60% of teenage passenger deaths occur in vehicles driven by other teens.
- Child passengers (under age 16) driven by teenagers (ages 16 to 19) have three times the risk of injury in a crash than children driven by adults. Overall, 9 percent of child fatalities occur with a driver under age 19.
- Crashes are more common among young drivers than any other age group. In the United States, 1 in 4 crash fatalities involve someone 16 to 24 years old, nearly twice as high as other age groups.
- In the National Young Driver Survey 20 percent of 11th grade drivers reported at least one crash over the past year, while nearly 3 percent experienced two or more crashes.
- Older child passengers, ages 12 to 17, are more likely to die in a car crash than younger children. This risk increases with each teenage year. The top three predictors for fatality are nonuse of restraints, teen drivers and roads with speed limits of 45 mph or higher.
- Teen driver crashes are the leading cause of death for our nation’s youth. The overwhelming majority of these crashes are caused by inexperience or distractions, not "thrill-seeking" or deliberate risk-taking.
- The crash fatality rate (crash fatalities/100,000 population) is highest for 16- to 17-year-olds within the first six months after licensure — and remains high through age 24.
- The fatality rate for drivers ages 16 to 19, based on miles driven, is four times higher than for drivers ages 25 to 69.
