Considerable information is available on the unwanted consequences of teenagers' driving: their overinvolvement in crashes, high death rates both as drivers and passengers, and injuries sustained by others involved in crashes with teenage drivers. Although reductions in teenagers' crash involvement have resulted from legal restrictions such as night driving curfews and increases in the minimum licensing age and alcohol purchase age, additional ways of reducing the high crash and injury rates of teenagers are needed. Altering the amount and/or type of driving done by teenagers is one possible approach. Little current information on the driving behavior of teenagers is available to guide this effort. Although several studies have been conducted on the driving behavior of teenagers and its relationship to their crash and violation records, the large-scale surveys on these topics are more than a decade old. (Author/publisher)
Abstract