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When parents understand the risk factors
involved in letting 16 year olds get behind the wheel, they
can act to improve the situation for their own children.
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•
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Allow your teenager
with a permit as much supervised driving time as possible |
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•
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Be aware of the high
risk when your novice licensed driver wants friend in
the car.
Allow only one teenage passenger with your
child for at least the first 6 months of
licensed driving. Don't assume that your
teenager drives with their friends the same way they drive
with you. |
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•
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With or without a
curfew law, prohibit late night driving that's unsupervised. |
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•
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Don't assume that
your teenager is using the seatbelt just because they
use it when
driving with you |
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•
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Choose safe cars.
Avoid performance cars for novice drivers. |
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Prohibit ANY drinking
and driving |
Three Factors that work together
to make the
teen years so deadly for young drivers
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1.
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Inexperience All young
drivers start out with very little knowledge or understanding
of the complexities of driving a motor vehicle. Like any
other skill, learning to drive well takes technical ability,
good judgment and experience. These skills are needed
to properly make the many continuous decisions, small
and large, that add up to safe driving. This is why it
is so necessary for them to practice with an adult in
all kinds of conditions, before and after they get their
license. |
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2.
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Risk taking behavior and
immaturity Adolescent impulsiveness is a natural behavior,
but it results in poor driving judgment and participation
in high risk behaviors such as speeding, inattention,
drinking and driving, and not using a seatbelt. Peer pressure
also encourages risk taking. |
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3.
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Greater risk exposure Teens
often drive at night with other teens in
the vehicle - factors that increase crash risk
Statistics show that one in four teens will have a crash
in their first year of driving |
Fatal Crash Statistics
For Young Drivers
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•
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Teen drivers are
different from other drivers, and their crash experience
is different. Compared to other drivers, a higher
proportion of teenagers are responsible for their fatal
crashes because of their own driving errors. |
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•
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A larger percentage
of fatal crashes are single-vehicle crashes compared to
those
involving other drivers. In this type of fatal crash,
the vehicle usually leaves the road and overturns or hits
a roadside object such as a tree or a pole. |
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•
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A larger proportion
of teen fatal crashes involves speeding, or going too
fast for
conditions, compared to other drivers. |
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•
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More teen fatal crashes
occur when passengers, usually other teens, are in the
car than do crashes involving other drivers. Two
out of three teens who die as passengers are in vehicles
driven by other teenagers. |
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•
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Among 16 year old
drivers, the crash rate per mile driven is 43% greater
than for 17 year olds- 2.7 times (270%) greater
than for 18 year olds and 3.9 times (390%) that of 19
- 20 year old drivers. In Minnesota 2001 Crash Facts:
Teenage drivers represent 8% of the licensed
drivers but our 15% of the crash involved drivers. |
First Contributing Factor in crashes
Listed by law enforcement in the area of
Driver Inexperience was:
5.79% for 16 year olds
3% for 17 year olds
1.9%for 18 year olds
.41% for other ages
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