Teen Driver Safety
The Centers For Disease Control and Prevention has a great resource for teen drivers in their motor vehicle safety section.
The statistics are alarming: In 2010 seven teens died daily from motor vehicle injuries. Seven. Teen drivers were found to be three times more likely to be in a fatal crash than drivers 20 years of age and older. Vehicle death rates for male teen drivers were almost twice that of female teen drivers.
Surprisingly, even though teens cannot legally purchase or consume alcohol, the rate of involvement of alcohol in motor vehicle crashes for teen drivers was higher than older drivers.
Teens have the lowest rate of seat belt usage than any other age group. Only 54% of teens report always using a seat belt.
Teens start off with the highest insurance rates of all drivers (before considering accidents, traffic tickets, etc…). A single traffic incident can make a teen driver almost impossible to insure. The lack of experience on the road, behind the wheel makes all the difference. Combine that with bad decisions and it is easy to see why teen drivers have such high accident, injury and death rates.