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Summary:
Full Study: http://www.youthrights.org/docs/teendriving.pdf
Summary of findings of the National Youth Rights’ Association’s study of all 35,000 fatal traffic accidents involving 101,000 Californians, 1995-2004:
1. The risks of teenage drivers have been drastically exaggerated by the media and “safety experts.” On average, teen drivers suffer one fatal crash per 15 million miles driven. That is, if a teen and middle-aged driver (the safest category of adult) each drove from Los Angeles to Boston and back 5,000 times (a task that, done nonstop, would take more than a century), the teen driver would be expected to cause one more fatal crash and three more additional injuries.
2. What experts and media reports call “teenage risk” is really a socioeconomic, not age-based, phenomenon. Due to poorer vehicles, driving conditions, and health care, residents of California’s poorest counties have traffic crash rates 600% higher per mile driven than those of its wealthiest counties. Teenaged drivers’ risk of being in a fatal crash varies a staggering 750% from its poorest to richest counties.
3. Where teenaged and middle-aged drivers (the safest category of adults) drive under reasonably equal economic conditions, the risk gap between teens and middle-agers shrinks drastically. Teens are 2.5 times more likely to live in poverty and suffer fatal crash rates 2.8 times higher than middle-aged adults. But when teen and middle-aged drivers are examined under equivalent economic conditions, the risk gap between teens and middle-agers narrows to just 40%. This traffic death difference is far less than for male versus female drivers (77%), doctors and lawyers versus farmers and firefighters (95%), and other groups whose risks society accepts. Driving risks are not caused by faulty teenaged brains and reckless attitudes, but by the failure of older American adults to share resources equitably with younger generations.
4. Teen risks drop sharply with greater driving experience. California’s safest teen drivers--both absolutely, and per mile driven--are those who drive the most. Coastal California teen drivers suffer fatal crash rates per mile driven lower than middle-aged drivers experiencing equivalent levels of poverty in Central Valley counties.
5. California’s graduated drivers’ licensing (GDL) law is associated with increased traffic deaths among teens. Teens licensed under the 1998 law have suffered fatal crash rates 7% higher than those licensed before the law took effect. The reason: banning or severely restricting teens from gaining driving experience may reduce fatal crashes among 16-17 year-olds—at the expense of even higher crash rates for 18-19 year-olds.
1. The risks of teenage drivers have been drastically exaggerated by the media and “safety experts.” On average, teen drivers suffer one fatal crash per 15 million miles driven. That is, if a teen and middle-aged driver (the safest category of adult) each drove from Los Angeles to Boston and back 5,000 times (a task that, done nonstop, would take more than a century), the teen driver would be expected to cause one more fatal crash and three more additional injuries.
2. What experts and media reports call “teenage risk” is really a socioeconomic, not age-based, phenomenon. Due to poorer vehicles, driving conditions, and health care, residents of California’s poorest counties have traffic crash rates 600% higher per mile driven than those of its wealthiest counties. Teenaged drivers’ risk of being in a fatal crash varies a staggering 750% from its poorest to richest counties.
3. Where teenaged and middle-aged drivers (the safest category of adults) drive under reasonably equal economic conditions, the risk gap between teens and middle-agers shrinks drastically. Teens are 2.5 times more likely to live in poverty and suffer fatal crash rates 2.8 times higher than middle-aged adults. But when teen and middle-aged drivers are examined under equivalent economic conditions, the risk gap between teens and middle-agers narrows to just 40%. This traffic death difference is far less than for male versus female drivers (77%), doctors and lawyers versus farmers and firefighters (95%), and other groups whose risks society accepts. Driving risks are not caused by faulty teenaged brains and reckless attitudes, but by the failure of older American adults to share resources equitably with younger generations.
4. Teen risks drop sharply with greater driving experience. California’s safest teen drivers--both absolutely, and per mile driven--are those who drive the most. Coastal California teen drivers suffer fatal crash rates per mile driven lower than middle-aged drivers experiencing equivalent levels of poverty in Central Valley counties.
5. California’s graduated drivers’ licensing (GDL) law is associated with increased traffic deaths among teens. Teens licensed under the 1998 law have suffered fatal crash rates 7% higher than those licensed before the law took effect. The reason: banning or severely restricting teens from gaining driving experience may reduce fatal crashes among 16-17 year-olds—at the expense of even higher crash rates for 18-19 year-olds.
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