Previous research by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety has shown that teenage drivers have higher rates of crashes per driver and per mile driven than drivers of any other age group (Tefft, 2012). While most past research has focused on teen driver crash involvements and on the deaths of teenage drivers and their passengers, AAA Foundation research has also shown that per licensed driver and per mile driven, teen drivers are also more likely than drivers of any other age group to be involved in crashes that result in injuries to or deaths of other people outside of their vehicle such as occupants of other vehicles, pedestrians, or cyclists. Research by AAA found that between 1998 and 2007, nearly one third of people killed in crashes involving drivers aged 15 – 17 were people outside of the teen driver’s vehicle (AAA, 2009). This study investigates the changes and trends in the number of teenage drivers aged 15 – 19 involved in police-reported crashes each year for the 20-year period from 1994 through 2013, and also quantifies the number of those drivers, their passengers, occupants of other vehicles, and non-occupants such as pedestrians and bicyclists who were injured and killed in crashes involving teenage drivers over the study period. Data analysed in this study were obtained from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) General Estimates System (GES, 2014) and Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS, 2014) databases. The GES database contains data from a representative sample of all crashes reported to the police nationwide designed to support national-level analysis of police-reported crashes. The FARS database contains data from all motor vehicle crashes that occur on public roadways in the United States and result in a death within 30 days of the crash. Data from crashes that occurred in years 1994 – 2013 and involved at least one driver aged 15 – 19 driving a passenger vehicle (i.e., car, pickup truck, van, minivan, or sport utility vehicle) were examined. Crashes in which a teenage driver was driving a motorcycle, all-terrain vehicle, large truck, bus, or other type of vehicle were excluded, unless the same rash also involved another driver aged 15 – 19 who was driving a passenger vehicle. The number of teenage drivers involved in all police-reported crashes, crashes that resulted in at least one injury, and crashes that involved at least one fatality were tabulated for each year of the study period. The role of each person injured or killed in these crashes was classified as: *Driver aged 15 – 19 *Passenger in vehicle driven by driver aged 15 – 19 *Driver or passenger of other vehicle1 *Non-occupant (pedestrian, cyclist, etc.) Data from non-fatal crashes in GES were combined with data from fatal crashes in the FARS database to estimate total number of teenage drivers involved in crashes and the number of people injured in those crashes. Data from the FARS database alone was used to calculate the number of teenage drivers involved in fatal crashes and number of people killed in those crashes. Data from fatal crashes reported in the GES database were excluded because those same crashes were also reported in the FARS database. Data from the GES database were weighted to yield representative estimates of all police-reported crashes nationwide. The body of this report presents national statistics on the total number of police-reported crashes in which drivers aged 15 – 19 were involved during the study period, and the number of people injured and killed in those crashes. State-specific statistics on teen drivers involved in fatal crashes and deaths in those crashes are provided in the Appendix. State-specific statistics on injuries and on non-fatal crashes are not presented because the design of the GES sample does not permit state-level analysis. (Author/publisher)
Abstract