A Look at Car Accidents Involving Teen Drivers

Every 16-year-old potential driver cannot wait for the day that their license is placed into their hands. To them, its the ticket to freedom. What most teens do not think of, however, is that they will then hold their lives and the lives of everyone in their car in their hands. According to Kemper Insurance Co., car accidents are the number one killer of teens. Why is this? Some say that 16-year- old drivers are too inexperienced to be able to handle this responsibility.

Their risk-taking behavior, supposed invincibility, immaturity, and rebellious attitude pose a great risk for their safety. Also, even though drinking at the age of 16 is illegal, 70% of all teens drink alcohol.

Each year, 60% of teen deaths in car accidents are alcohol-related (Teenage Drunk Driving). This was a cause for great concern. What ever could be done to save the lives of those teens and others on the road? Some of this trepidation came out in the open when researchers found that 25% of 16-year-olds has some kind of crash in the first year driving (Getting Your Drivers License).

Some action needed to be taken in order to insure safety on the road. More than 20 states have a program where first time offenders (or those who refuse a Breathalyzer test) are forced to face a panel of drunken driving victims families. Liability on bars, parents, and others who buy for minors has increased. In the website www.aaahoosier.com, teens can chat about driving safety with parents. In SADD and the program Safe Rides, children are less likely to drive home while intoxicated because someone sober guarantees them a safe ride home.

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Also, Hollywood is doing its part to reverse peer pressure when it comes to drinking and driving. They said If peer pressure can cause people to drink and drive, it should be able to prevent it too (Teenage Drunk Driving). The officials then decided to use Graduated Drivers Licenses. Graduated licenses are a trial for new drivers. This is when new drivers have a curfew. They must have a driver over the age of 21 with them at all times and have every passenger wearing their seat belt. Sometimes, the 90 days consecutively after they had gotten their licenses, the supervisor riding with them must be over 23. Then teens can apply for an operators license with full privileges upon turning 18. However, they cannot have two reportable accidents or two traffic violations or one of each in the last 12 months (New manuals, tests and laws). It is believed that with this system, teens will be given an incentive to be violation free.

After this change, the states with Graduated Drivers License laws had a decrease in their crash rates by about 10%. This system also potentially saved $7-$14 for every dollar paid in the form of lost mobility, including medical costs, the emergency room, lost work, and legal costs. The fatal accident rate among teen drivers fell 24% from 1988 to 1996 (Graduated Drivers Licensing).

Some reasons that teenagers have such a bad driving reputation are partially mistakes causes by their parents. In order to reduce insurance premiums, they put their child into a professional driving course. Sometimes the teens do not get the instruction thats right for them. Also, these instructors can only spend 6 hours of on-the-road training with their students. Often, the parent then passes that off as acceptable and they, in turn, do not take their child out to drive personally.

All in all, the methods that have been tried seem to be doing a good job reducing serious problems. The commercial that says, Friends dont let friends to drive drunk, seems to be having a positive influence. Many reasons can be given for the dramatic change in statistics over the last few years. But, as in the article about teen driving restrictions said, No test can take the place of a parent in the front seat.”