Risk of Teen driving
Teenagers have the highest car crash and fatality rates of any demographic group, partly because they woefully underestimate driving risks. The relationship between age and driving behavior has interested me for a long time. It is generally acknowledged that the greatest risk of traffic crashes is among teenage drivers. Traffic crashes are the leading cause of death for teenagers across the United States. For both men and women, drivers aged 16 to 19 years of age have the highest average annual crash and traffic violation rates of any other age group. They are more dangerous than previously thought, nearly two of every three people killed in crashes involving teenage drivers are people other than the driver. Teenagers have long been the riskiest on the road.
A month ago, I heard news said two Ohio State students were killed in a car crash the day after New Year in Clinton Township, N.J. Three other international OSU undergraduate students were also involved in the accident. This shocked me, and reminded me about risk of teen driving.
Curry at all, "Prevalence of teen driver errors leading to serious motor vehicle crashes." analyzed crashes involving 15-18 year old drivers and they found out 822 teen drivers were involved in 795 serious crashes, representing 335,667 teens in 325,291 crashes. Driver error was by far the most common reason for crashes (95.6%), as opposed to vehicle or environmental factors. Among crashes with a driver error, a teen made the error 79.3% of the time (75.8% of all teen-involved crashes). Recognition errors (e.g., inadequate surveillance, distraction) accounted for 46.3% of all teen errors, followed by decision errors (e.g., following too closely, too fast for conditions) (40.1%) and performance errors (e.g., loss of control) (8.0%). Inadequate surveillance, driving too fast for conditions, and distracted driving together accounted for almost half of all crashes. Aggressive driving behavior, drowsy...