“Programs aimed at reducing teen crash rates [should] focus on increasing
skills and minimizing driving exposure for young drivers, especially in
the most risky conditions,” say Bruce G. Simons-Morton, Ed.D.,
M.P.H., and Jessica L. Hartos, Ph.D., of the National Institute of Child
Health
and Human Development in Bethesda, Md.
Their review of recent research appears in the American
Journal of Health Education.
“Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of injury and death
among adolescents 16 to 19 years of age,” the researchers say.
They list at least a half a dozen reasons for this high rate of accidents
and
the damage they cause: immaturity and inexperience, driving at night,
teenage passengers, alcohol, high-speed driving and not using seat belts.
“Crashes are more prevalent among young, inexperienced drivers compared
to older, more experienced ones,” Simons-Morton and Hartos explain. “Also,
compared to adults, adolescents actually drive less overall but they
drive disproportionately more at night, increasing the likelihood of
both getting
into an accident and the severity of the crash.”
The presence of other teens in the car may distract young drivers, they
say. Most accidents among young drivers are due to driver error, but alcohol
is involved in 21 percent of fatal crashes among drivers aged 15 to 20.
Teenagers are also less likely to use safety belts than older drivers.
Simons-Morton and Hartos examined three approaches to reducing the motor
vehicle crash risk among young drivers. They found that driver education
seems to have little effect on safety, due to the limited experience it
provides.
“While minimal proficiency in vehicle control is essential, it is
not entirely sufficient to assure safe driving,” they say. “Important
skills involving perception, anticipation and avoidance of risk develop
gradually over time and many miles of driving. The first six months and
3,000 miles of driving appear to be particularly risky for newly licensed
drivers.”
Driver education might boost safety if it were changed to lengthen the
period of practice driving, increase parental involvement, and tie into
graduated licensing policies. Advanced level driver education courses,
for instance, might be linked to expanded driving privileges.
Graduated driver licensing is a second area that offers
hope for improvement, the researchers say. Traditional driver licensing
happened in two stages:
the learner’s permit, followed by full licensing at age 16. Graduated
driver licensing adds a third step between the two. A teenaged driver must
hold the learner’s permit for at least several months, with adult-supervised
driving. Then teens are granted a provisional license which allows them
to drive unsupervised, but with some restrictions — during the
daytime only and with passenger limits, for example. Full licensing occurs
at age
18, after a violation-free provisional period.
At present, 35 states and the District of Columbia use
the three-stage licensing standard, although the systems vary in strength,
says the Insurance
Institute of Highway Safety. Only eight get the institute’s highest
rating: California, the District of Columbia, Georgia, Massachusetts,
New Jersey, Oregon, Tennessee, Virginia and Washington.
Finally, parents can also play a greater role in molding their teenagers
into safer drivers, Simons-Morton says.
“Parents are involved in their teenagers’ driving from the
beginning, teaching them to drive, governing their access to vehicles and
setting rules,” he says. “However, an alarming number of
teens report not having driving rules or restrictions for high-risk driving
conditions,
including driving at night and with teenage passengers.”
Simple strategies, including videotapes, newsletters for parents and parent-teen
driving agreements, can effectively inform both parents and children of
the risks of teenage driving and increase the adoption of restrictions
during the first year of driving.
More important, say the authors, is the need to put these approaches together.
“Efforts to increase parental management could be integrated into
driver education and licensing activities to increase parental supervision
of practice driving and parental management practices, including the timing
of teen licensure, vehicle availability and driving conditions,” they
conclude.
