We’ve had an alarming number losses of some wonderful teenagers in out little town over the last five years. Just this last Thanksgiving one of our senior football players died in a crash. Please read this in it’s entirity. Here’s the major points:
• A 16-year-old at the wheel has a higher rate of involvement in fatal crashes. A 16-year-old makes driving errors, exceeds speed limits, runs off roads and rolls his or her vehicle over at higher rates than older drivers.
• They’re riding with other teens. Forty percent of 16-year-old drivers involved in deadly single-vehicle crashes in 2003 had one or more teen passengers. Teens’ risk of dying nearly doubles with the addition of one male passenger, the insurance institute says. The risk more than doubles with two or more young men in the car.
• They’re in teen-driven cars after dark. Teen drivers are three times as likely as drivers 20 and older to be involved in fatal crashes between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m., the institute says, and 16-year-olds die at night at twice the rate as in the daytime.
• The young driver loses control. Driver error is involved in 77 percent of fatal crashes involving 16-year-old drivers but in less than 60 percent of crashes with drivers 20 and older. About a third of all 16-year-old drivers and a quarter of 17-to-19-year-old drivers involved in fatal crashes rolled their vehicles. Rollovers often occur when a driver overcorrects and runs off the road. Inexperienced teens are most likely to do so.
• They’re in an unsuitable vehicle. Because they’re in the age group most likely to be involved in a crash, teens should occupy vehicles least likely to roll and most protective when they crash, highway safety experts say. Yet teens often wind up in small cars that are especially vulnerable when hit by larger vehicles.
• They drive in more dangerous regions. Eight of the 10 states with the highest teen-driver fatal crash-involvement rates are in the South.
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This post was written by bobsikes on January 24, 2009
I agree with Mr.Sikes,teen drivers are more likely to have accidents while other teens are in the car. The main reason is inexperience both in driving and dealing with distraction while behind the wheel. As a parent of teens and an owner of a driving school I realize teens will take chances and show off while peers are present. Many states have laws that prohibit any passengers under the age of 21 for the first year while driving with a “provisional license” this is an attempt by government to minimize the accident rate due to distraction. The solution is not to give these easily distracted unexperienced drivers “tanks” to drive so they can survive an accident , the answer is to be more involved as a parent and give that child the experience by spending time riding with and evaluating their driving skills. Many states require a cerfew for the first year of driving betweens the hours of 11:00PM to 5:00AM thereby taking the teen off the roads during the most dangerous time for driving because of fatigue and most importantly drunk drivers.
We all want our children to be able to accept responsibility and make mature dicisions, but we must be involved and take responsibility ourselves for that new driver.