Teenage drivers are on the roads in full drive lately, whether or not reconnecting with buddies after robust months of social isolation or commuting to summer jobs.
Summer season has at all times been a harmful time for younger drivers. The interval between Memorial Day and Labor Day has been dubbed the “100 Deadliest Days” as a result of excessive proportion of deadly accidents involving teenagers.
Over 7,000 individuals died in teen driving-related summertime crashes from 2010 to 2019 in the US, in keeping with AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety. That’s greater than seven individuals a day throughout these 100 Deadliest Days, in comparison with the remainder of the yr (six individuals a day).
Teenagers’ lack of driving expertise and immaturity result in harmful practices behind the wheel, resembling rushing, consuming, and tailgating. And when teen passengers are current within the automobile, the danger of stripling drivers moving into an accident goes up much more.
When a teen driver has solely teen passengers of their automobile, the fatality fee for all individuals concerned in a crash elevated 51 %, in keeping with AAA. However when older passengers (35 or older) trip with a teen driver, fatality charges in crashes decreased eight %.
One development having a positive impact on teen-caused accidents is that fewer of them are driving right this moment than a technology in the past. Solely about 61 % of 18-year-olds within the U.S. had a driver’s license in 2018, in comparison with 80.4 % in 1983, in keeping with an evaluation by Green Car Congress. The variety of 16-year-old licensed drivers has additionally considerably decreased, from 46.2 % in 1983 to 25.6 % in 2018.
The reasons fewer teens are driving fluctuate from the elevated problem of acquiring a license to the prepared availability of ride-sharing apps, to the upper value of vehicles.
The elevated problem can partly be attributed to the unfold of graduated driver’s license (GDL) legal guidelines, which embody a three-phase program that enables teen drivers to develop extra mature driving attitudes and achieve expertise behind the wheel. These legal guidelines, handed by each state, have been profitable in decreasing teen motorized vehicle accidents, in keeping with the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.
Regardless of the success of graduated licensing packages and different constructive developments, AAA strongly encourages mother and father and guardians to mannequin secure driving behaviors and talk about harmful behaviors with teenagers, as even one fatality is one too many, and sadly the 100 Deadliest Days is just not able to be retired.
Further assets:
Triple-I, Background on teen drivers
Triple-I, Information & Statistics – Teen drivers