Preventing Teen Motor Crashes Contributions from the Behavioral and Social Sciences: Workshop Report (2007) / Chapter Skim
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2 The Anatomy of Crashes Involving Young Drivers
2 The Anatomy of Crashes Involving Young Drivers
Pages 6-15
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From page 6... ...
In fact, during their first six months of solo driving, newly licensed drivers are about eight times more likely to be involved in fatal crashes than are more experienced drivers (Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, 2004)
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From page 7... ...
have persisted over the past decade, with an increase of 5 percent between 1994 and 2004. During this same time period, driver fatalities rose by 1 percent among young male drivers, compared with a 15 percent increase for young women, according to data presented by Richard Compton (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 2006a)
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From page 8... ...
Jim Hedlund provided a framework for the wealth of data on risk factors for teens by describing five critical elements teens need to drive safely: · skills -- which include the capacity to operate the vehicle and to recognize hazards, as well as the capacity to react appropriately to the unexpected; · knowledge -- of traffic rules and operating procedures, as well as understanding of risks and their potential consequences; · experience -- including both sufficient practice, as well as the familiarity with the consequences of bad judgment that fosters good judgment; · maturity -- or developed capacity for reasoning, judgment, and decision making; and · environment -- or safe surroundings in which to learn to drive. Whether or not these elements are all in place, teens are eager to drive, and their crash risk is particularly high in the first few months they are on the road, as well as when they travel at night, when teenage passengers are in the car, when they are driving too fast for conditions, and when they have consumed alcohol.
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From page 9... ...
Countries in which waiting past the teen years to begin driving is more common, such as Canada and New Zealand, have found that older novice drivers also have higher a category. These adult drivers were not addressed at the workshop, but it is important to note that some proportion of teenagers have characteristics that will place them in this group once they are adults, and that the development of safe driving practices for this group may pose challenges distinct from the teen driver problem.
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From page 10... ...
Possible reasons why waiting even 12 to 18 months beyond the oncestandard 16th birthday target for licensure may be beneficial are explored in Chapter 3. However, the data on crash rates for young novice drivers are sufficiently compelling that many states have adopted graduated driver licensure (GDL)
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From page 11... ...
Younger, newly licensed drivers, as a group, have comparatively few alcohol-related crashes, while older, more experienced teen and young adult drivers have more such crashes than do adults. Nevertheless, alcohol significantly impairs driving capacity among all teenagers -- and at lower blood levels than typically affect adults.
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From page 12... ...
Passengers The risk of crashing is significantly elevated for teen drivers who have teenage passengers, particularly male passengers, in the car, as Anne McCartt and others made clear. Table 2-3 shows the association of passengers and the already elevated crash risk for teen drivers -- the figures for 16
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From page 13... ...
demonstrate how the presence of multiple passengers seems to magnify the risk of crashes, whether they are caused by driver error, speeding, or alcohol consumption. Bruce Simons-Morton offered support for the proposition that male teen passengers have a significantly larger impact on risky driving behaviors than do female passengers, although the reasons for this discrepancy are not clearly understood.
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From page 14... ...
SOURCE: Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. Unpublished analysis of 2004 data from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
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From page 15... ...
As the conversation turned to intervention strategies, participants repeatedly stressed that remedies need to address these three elements in realistic ways. However, the information about risk factors and teen driver error goes only so far in explaining teen crashes -- it does not address the reasons why teens often lack the critical elements.
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