Major Dangers for Teen Drivers

Driving at Night

• Research suggests that teens should have 8.5 to 9.5 hours of sleep each night.
  (National Sleep Foundation)
• Being awake for 18 hours is equal to a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of 0.08% which is legally drunk and leaves you at equal risk for a crash.
  (DrowsyDriving.org)
• Sleepiness or fatigue causes the following:
  (DrowsyDriving.org)
  • Impaired reaction time, judgment, and vision
  • Problems with information processing and short-term memory
  • Decreased performance, vigilance, and motivation
  • Increased moodiness and aggressive behaviors
• Just like drugs or alcohol, sleepiness slows reaction time, decreases awareness, and impairs judgment. Just like alcohol, sleepiness can be fatal when driving.
  (National Safety Council)

Distractions

• In a national survey of more than 900 teens with driver’s licenses from 26 high schools, teens rated the following behaviors or activities as “extremely” or “very” distracting:
  (Liberty Mutual)
  • Instant or text messaging while driving – 37%
  • The teen driver’s emotional state – 20%
  • Having several friends in the car – 19%
  • Talking on a cell phone – 14%
  • Eating or drinking – 7%
  • Having a friend in the car – 5%
  • Listening to music – 4%
• More fatal teen crashes occur when passengers (often other teens) are in the car.
  (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration)
• Two out of three teens that died as passengers are in vehicles driven by other teens.
  (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration)
• When teenage drivers transport passengers there is a greatly increased crash risk. When there are multiple passengers, the crash risk is three to five times greater than when driving alone. The risk is also greater for young drivers aged 16 to 17.
  (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration)
• In a 2005 study, researchers found that when teens drive other teens, they tend to drive faster than other motorists and to leave less distance between their vehicles and the vehicles in front of them.
  (National Institute of Health and Westat)

Speeding

• Among male drivers between 15 and 20 years of age who were involved in fatal crashes in 2005, 38% were speeding at the time of the crash and 24% had been drinking.
  (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration)
• In 2006, 39% of the fatalities of 15-20 year-olds involved speeding or going too fast for the driving condition.
  (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration)
• Teens are more likely than older drivers to speed and allow shorter headways (the distance from the front of one vehicle to the front of the next). The presence of male teenage passengers increases the likelihood of these risky driving behaviors among teen male drivers.
  (Simons-Morton)
• If you double your speed – say from 30 mph to 60 mph – your braking distance does not become twice as long. It becomes four times as far.
  (Drive and Stay Alive)
• According to researches at San Diego State University, teen drivers have an unrealistic view of safe driving behavior.
  Young drivers who were surveyed between January and December 2002 believed they were speeding if they were driving around 90 mph.
  (San Diego State University, 2002)

Not Wearing a Seat Belt

When referring to seat belts, “properly worn” means with both straps snugly fitted to transfer the impact of the collision to the parts of your body that can take it – your hipbones and shoulder bones. With just the shoulder strap on, you can slide out from under the seat belt and be strangled, while the lap belt alone doesn’t keep your face from hitting the steering wheel. (Oklahoma State University)

• Nationally in 2006, 4,848 teen passenger vehicle occupants aged 16-20 were killed in motor vehicle crashes and 58%, or 2,813, were unrestrained at the time of the fatal crash.
  (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration)
• Teenage drivers and passengers are among those least likely to wear their seat belts.
  (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration)
• In 2006, 64% of youth aged 15-20 who died in passenger vehicles were not wearing seat belts.
  (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration)
• Of the 482 passenger vehicle occupant fatalities for teens 13-15 years-old for which restraint use was known, 313, or 65%, were unrestrained.
  (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration)

Driving Under the Influence of Alcohol

• In 2007, 92.2 percent of twelfth graders reported that alcohol is “very easy” or “fairly easy” to get.
  (University of Michigan)
• In 2007, 82.6 percent of tenth graders reported that alcohol is “very easy” or “fairly easy” to get. This is down from 89 percent a decade earlier.
  (University of Michigan)
• In 2007, 62 percent of eighth graders reported that alcohol is “very easy” or “fairly easy” to get. This is down from 75 percent a decade earlier.
  (University of Michigan)
• Drivers are less likely to use restraints when they have been drinking.
  (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration)
• Of the young drivers that had been drinking and were killed in crashes, 77% were unrestrained.
  (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration)
• In 2006, the rate of alcohol impairment among drivers involved in fatal crashes was four times higher at night than during the day (36% versus 9%.)
  (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration)
• In 2006, an estimated 17,602 people died in alcohol-related traffic crashes-an average of one every 30 minutes. These deaths constitute 41% of the 42,642 total traffic fatalities. Of these, an estimated 13,470 involved a driver with an illegal BAC (.08 or greater). On average someone is killed by a drunk driver every 39 minutes.
  (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration)