Today, my family marks six years since Reid left us too soon. There is comfort in the fact that he has a legacy that is helping others. Thanks to so many of you who have emailed kind thoughts and prayers.
I promised a few weeks back that I would get back to the recent AAA Foundation study on teen drivers with passengers, found at http://www.aaafoundation.org/pdf/2012FatalCrashCharacteristicsTeenDriversAndPassengers.pdf. Hats off to the Foundation staff for this invaluable piece of research and insight.
I suppose that the value and impact of this report lies in the fact that even though its conclusions about teen drivers and passengers are not unexpected, the statistical evidence that it brings to the situation is national, recent, thorough, and thus indisputable. It solidifies our understanding of this intractable problem of safe teen driving, and should for years to come be the definitive source for legislators and others when they evaluate or reevaluate the passenger provisions of a teen driver law or program.
Four statistics not only popped out as I was reading but have stayed with me since. The first is ten thousand 16 and 17 year old teen driver fatalities (one of which was Reid) in the years 2005-2010. If that number does not break your heart and send a shiver up your public policy spine, I don’t know what will. Second is the gender breakdown: about two thirds of these fatalities were boys. Third, and perhaps the newest insight among the reports findings, is that while crash rates for teen drivers have declined nationally through the past several years, crash rates for teen drivers with teen passengers have stayed relatively even, demonstrating that passenger restrictions are widely ignored, even as state teen driver laws get stricter. The last statistic that caught my eye was crash rates for teens with teen passengers. We know that overall, teen driver crash rates are three to four times those of the safest drivers, and that each passenger in a teen’s car increases the crash risk. In round number, this report documents that a 16 to 17 year old driver with one or more teen passengers has a crash rate risk that is six to seven times higher than the safest category of drivers.
It is important to note that the crash risk is for teen drivers with teen passengers. When a teen has an older supervising driver in the car, crash risk does not increase, as one would expect.
Again, parents are well advised to spend time with this report, but let me pull out these pointers: (1) the passenger restriction portions of teen driver laws have solid evidence behind them: (2) don’t put your own convenience — the ease of having your teen transport passengers instead of yourself — ahead of the safety risks: (3) unfortunately, teen boys require a higher level of supervision and caution than girls; (4) since state laws on passengers vary widely but the risks are uniform, the more lenient (or non-existent) your state law is, the greater burden you have to impose passenger restrictions on your teen driver; and (5) there is no harm and in fact a likely benefit in continuing to supervise your teen as a passenger after he or she obtains a license.
Thanks again to the AAA Foundation for this valuable contribution to teen driver safety.
