Teen Driving Facts

• 17,356 accidents in 2005 involving drivers who were 16 or 17 years of age.

• The teen drivers were found to be at fault in 66% of the accidents and 70% of the fatalities.

• Teens are involved in three times as many fatal crashes as other drivers. Even more frightening is the fact that motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for
  sixteen year olds.

• In 2003; 5,691 teenagers died in the United States from teenage motor vehicle crashes. These deaths are by far the leading public health problem among persons 13 to 19 years old. The crash risk is particularly high during the first two years in which teenagers drive.

•  78% of the fatal crashes involving 16-year old drivers were the result of driver error.

• Drivers younger than 18 are twice as likely as adults to be involved in fatal accidents and three times as likely to be injured in a collision.

• 2 out of every 3 people killed in teen crashes are people other than the teen driver; these fatalities include the teen driver's passengers, drivers and passenger of other vehicles and, pedestrians and bicyclists.

• Between 1995 and 2004; 26,990 drivers between the ages of 15 and 17 were involved in 26,453 fatal crashes that claimed the lives of 30,917 people. 36.2% of people killed in teen crashes were the teen drivers. 31.8% were passengers of teens. 24.2% were occupants of their vehicles. 7.5% were non-motorists.

• Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for 15-20 year olds Teens have the highest involvement rates in all types of crashes 10 teens lose their lives every day in car crashes.

• Many fatal teen crashes involve excessive speed or driving too fast for existing road conditions77% of teen crashes involved avoidable driver errors31,000 people were killed in crashes involving teens between 1995 and 2004

• Since March 2003, 2,600 American troops were killed in war-related accidents. During the same 41-month period time span, over 22,000 teens ages ranging from 15-19 years of age died in car crashes across the United States of America.

• In 2002, 8,278 15 - 20 year old drivers were involved in fatal crashes - a 12 percent increase from the, 403 involved in 1992. Driver fatalities for this age group increased by 21 percent between 1992 and 2002. For young male, driver fatalities rose by 15 percent, compared with a 42 percent increase for young females.

• Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for 15 to 20 year olds (based on 2000 figures, which are the latest mortality data currently available from the National Center for Health Statistics). In 2002, 3,827 drivers 15 to 20 years old were killed, and an additional 324,000 were injured, in motor vehicle crashes.

• In 2002, 14 percent (8,278) of all the drivers involved in fatal crashes (57,803) were young drivers 15 to 20 years old, and 16 percent (1,825,000 of all the drivers involved in police-reported crashes (11,146,000) were young drivers.

• In 2002, the estimated economic cost of police-reported crashes involving drivers between 15 and 20 years old was $40.8 billion. Nearly one-third (412) of the 15 to 20 year old drivers involved in fatal crashes who had an invalid operator's license at the time of the crash also had a previous license suspension or revocation. For the same age group, 29 percent of the drivers who were killed in motor vehicle crashes during 2002 had been drinking.

• During 2002, 215 young motorcycle operators (15-20 years old) were killed and an additional 9,000 were injured.

• Helmets are estimated to be 29 percent effective in preventing fatalities among motorcyclists. NHTSA estimates that helmets saved the lives of 692 motorcyclists of all ages in 2002, and that if all motorcyclists had worn helmets, an additional 449 lives could have been saved.

• During 2002, 45 percent of the motorcycle drivers between 15 and 20 years old who were fatally injured in rashes were not wearing helmets.

• Of the young motorcycle drivers involved in fatal crashes in 2002, nearly one-half (49 percent) were either unlicensed or driving with an invalid license.

Alcohol and drugs

Alcohol and drugs are not the leading cause of teen crashes. It's inexperience! Nationally, alcohol or drugs cause less than 3% of teen crashes. (Where the teen driver is the one drinking or doing drugs) NHTSA defines a fatal traffic crash as being alcohol-related if either a driver or a non-occupant (e.g., pedestrian) had a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of 0.01 grams per deciliter (g/dl) or greater in a police-reported traffic crash. Persons with a BAC of 0.08 g/dl) or greater involved in fatal crashes are considered to be intoxicated. This is the legal limit of intoxication in most states.

All states and the District of Columbia now have 21-year-old minimum drinking age laws. NHTSA estimates that these laws have reduced traffic fatalities involving driver 18 to 20 year olds by 13 percent and have saved an estimated 21, 887 lives since 1975.

In 2002, an estimated 917 lives were saved by minimum drinking age laws. In 2002, 24 percent of the young driver 15 to 20 years old were killed in crashes were intoxicated.

The severity of a crash increases with alcohol involvement. In 2002, 2 percent of the 15 - 20 year old drivers involved in property-damage- only crashes had been drinking, 4 percent of those involved in crashes resulting in injury had been drinking, and 23 percent of those involved in fatal crashes had been drinking.

For young drivers 15 to 20 years old, alcohol involvement is higher among males than among females. In 2002, 27 percent of the young male drivers involved in fatal crashes had been drinking at the time of the crash, compared with 11 percent of the young female drivers involved in fatal crashes. Drivers are less likely to use restraints when they have been drinking. In 2002, 69 percent of the young drivers of passenger vehicles involved in fatal crashes who had been drinking were unrestrained. Of the young drivers who had been drinking and were killed in crashes, 77 percent were unrestrained.

1. Automobile crashes are the leading cause of death and injury to teens in the United States and Florida
2. Law enforcement classifies over 70% of all teen crashes as "Avoidable."
3.  In the year 2000, over three times more teens died on our highways than all the people killed in the attack on the twin towers in New York.
4. The death of a teen in an automobile crash results in a divorce almost 60% of the time.
5. Automobile crashes are the leading cause of epilepsy.
6. Injury producing crashes involving teens cost Florida taxpayers over 3.5 billion dollars in 1999.
7. Between 25 - 30% of teen drivers will have a crash within the first 12 months of getting their operators license.

Alcohol is a hypnotic sedative and nervous system suppressive. Addiction to alcoholism has become a major social problem. Driving under influence of alcohol has become one of the common feature and cause of accidents today. As per studies carried out by NHTSA in 2006, Alcohol-related motor vehicle accidents under influence of alcohol kill someone every 31 minutes and injure someone every two minutes in US alone. Every year, in the U.S., about 600,000 and 10 percent - of all motor vehicle crashes recorded by police department are due to consumption of alcohol. Nearly 40% Americans are involved in an alcohol-related motor vehicle crash in their lifetime In Illinois during 2005, 56,680 people were arrested for DUI (Driving under Influence) which results into losing the driving privileges. by 90 percent of these people The ratio of lethal accidents in Illinois that are alcohol-related is roughly four times greater at night than during the day. In US, Nationally, each year, about 748,000 people suffer injuries in alcohol-related traffic crashes, an average of one person injured every minute. About 40,000 of these are severely affected. More than half of the 414 child passengers ages 14 and younger who died in alcohol-related crashes during 2005 were riding with the drinking driver (NHTSA 2006). In 2005, nearly 1.4 million drivers were arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol or narcotics (Department of Justice 2005). That’s less than one percent of the 159 million self-reported episodes of alcohol–impaired driving among U.S. adults each year (Quinlan et al. 2005). Each year, crashes related to alcohol ingestion in the United States cost about $73 billion In 2005,in US, 48 children age 14 years and younger who were killed as pedestrians or pedal cyclists were hit by drivers under influence

Groups at Risks

The percentage of male drivers involved in serious vehicle crashes is almost double than their female counterparts who have been recorded at a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of 0.08% or greater It is against the law to drive with a BAC of 0.08% or higher in most of the countries. At all BAC levels youths are more vulnerable to accidents compared with adult ones. Young men under the legal drinking age (18 to 20) are found driving while impaired due to ingestion of alcohol more frequently than any other age group.

Studies have shown that heavier drinkers usually prefer to drink at bars and other person's homes, and at multiple locations requiring shorter distances to cover after consumption Young drivers have been found to prefer drinking at private parties, while older, more educated drivers prefer bars and taverns.

Beer is the drink of choice in most cases of heavy drinking, binge drinking, drunk driving and underage drinking

Safety Belts and Alcohol

Approximately 12.8 percent of fatally injured intoxicated drivers used Safety belts as compared to 33 percent of sober drivers kill in crashes. The percentage of drivers using safety belts involved in serious crashes who have been impaired is at significantly lower rate than sober drivers Blood Alcohol Content (BAC).
 
Measurement of concentration of alcohol in blood provides a common, standard platform to measure and compare the levels of intoxication. Alcohol Regulation Laws differ in their limits from one state to another. While in United States, 0.10% level is considered the legal limit for safe driving for common carriers and 0.04% BAC is considered for aviators; countries like Russia, Norway, Poland, Sweden permits the level of 20 mg/deciliter, while countries like Australia, Argentina permits 0.05% level of BAC. In India the legally permissible limit is 40 mg/deciliter, while. Countries like Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Romania, and Czech Republic have completely banned this.

The effect of alcohol absorption is gradual and it depends upon the rate at which one becomes drunk. As a person drinks faster than the alcohol can be eliminated, more of the drug accumulates in the body, which results in higher and increased levels of alcohol in the blood.

 

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