No driver safety problem plagues us more than this one.
Too many young drivers are dying on our roads and highways.
In spite of the safety advances of the last few decades -- seatbelts, airbags, improved crash standards -- teenage driver death rates remain unacceptably high.
The teen driving crisis goes beyond our interest in accident rates and fatalities and runs to the very core of our American identity. Our cars, trucks and SUVs represent freedom to us. But the freedom sometimes comes at a very high price.
As parents whose children have now begun to drive, we bear a responsibility to our families and communities. It is in those communities, in those families, that the phone call comes one night, against all logic and all hope: a child has died behind the wheel of a car. In smaller communities, an officer might come to the house, hat in hand, knocking on the screen door on an otherwise peaceful evening.
On July 2, 2007 the Virginia AAA again emphasized the urgency of improving the driving skills of our teenagers and said that, on average, every week in Virginia three or four teenagers lose their lives in automobile accidents.
Included are a few sobering facts below from NHTSA.
• Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for American teenagers.
• In 2001, 5,341 teens were killed in passenger vehicles involved in motor vehicle crashes. Two thirds of those killed were not buckled up.
• When driver fatality rates are calculated on the basis of estimated annual travel, teen drivers (16 to 19 years old) have a fatality rate that is about four times higher than the fatality rate among drivers 25 through 69 years old.
• In 2001, 3,608 drivers 15 to 20 years old were killed in motor vehicle crashes, and an additional 337,000 were injured in the USA.
• Young drivers (16-20) were involved in 7,598 fatal crashes in 2001 in the USA.
• In the last decade, over 68,000 teens have died in car crashes in the USA.
• Sixty-five percent of teen passenger deaths occur when another teenager is driving.
• In 2001, 26% of fatally injured teen drivers (16-20 years old) had high blood alcohol concentrations (0.08 percent or more), even though all were under the minimum legal drinking age and are not legally permitted to purchase alcohol.
• Two out of three teenagers killed in motor vehicle crashes are males.
• In California, teenage drivers compose 8% of the drivers but had 24% of the traffic accidents, during 2002-2004. • In California, Governor Schwarzenegger’cited statistics by the California Highway Patrol that cell phone use is a primary cause of accidents caused by distracted drivers. He also referred to a Ford Motor Co. study saying teens are four times more likely to be distracted than adults by cell phone use.
A 2001 report by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found that 16-year-old drivers have a crash rate three times higher than that of 17-year-olds, five times greater than 18-year-olds and almost 10 times greater than drivers ages 30-59.
Whatever we may feel about reckless driving and teen fatalities, it's clear that the system is broken. The relationship between new drivers and their transportation is in need of repair. Those repair efforts begin with something that many find woefully lacking in most states throughout the America: adequate driver training.
Here are some related links you may find useful:
I Promise Program
Autoweek Teenage Driver Safety Issue
Allstate Insurance Teen Drivers Program
NHTSA's Safe Teen Drivers Program