Motor vehicle crashes are the number one killer of teenagers in America, and the majority of deaths occur in vehicles being driven by teenagers. Unfortunately, teen driver fatalities, particularly for female teens, are on the way up, not down. The total is nearly 6,000 dead teenage occupants (aged 15 to 20 years) every year for the past 10 years, and more than 500,000 teenagers injured enough to visit an emergency department (ED) every year. This is a public health problem that affects every family with teenagers in the USA, but is poorly understood by teenagers and their parents. Teen drivers account for only about 6.4% of licensed drivers but are involved in 14% of fatal crashes and 18% of all serious (police-reported) crashes. By self-report, about one third of 16- and 17-year-old drivers will have a crash of some type in their first 14 months of driving. Teen drivers are not bad drivers, but they are generally both immature and inexperienced drivers. The crash risk and safety of novice teen drivers is further described in relation to: the presence of teenage passengers, nighttime driving, safety belts (including passengers), alcohol use, and car type. It is also descibed what parents and emergency physicians can and should do in preventing unneccessary death and disability from novice teen driver crashes. Graduated licensing works best to reduce crash risk when all of the optimal provisions are met, but only 8 states (California, Georgia, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Oregon, Tennessee, Virginia, and Washington) and the District of Columbia have systems rated ‘‘good’’ by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS). The final conclusion is that there is a long way to go in preventing unnecessary death and disability from novice teen driver crashes.
Abstract