Personal Injury Blog

Study on Teen Driver Accidents Provides Unexpected Results

September 19th, 2011
teen driver accidents

18-year-old drivers can skip most provisional driver restrictions

A new analysis of teen driver accidents  indicates that although the number of accidents involving drivers aged 16 and 17 years has declined, there has been an increase in the number of accidents involving 18-year-old teen drivers.  Los Angeles car accident lawyers believe this raises an interesting question- has the focus on limiting driving privileges for teenagers, pushed many accidents involving these drivers into the future?

The analysis of crash data showed that the number of fatal accidents involving drivers aged 16 and 17 years has dropped, while those involving drivers of 18 years of age have actually increased.  The researchers analyzed crash data since 1986, and initially, the researchers believed that graduated driver’s licensing programs had saved a lot of 16 and 17 year old lives.  However, they soon realized that there was an increase in the number of accidents involving 18-year-old drivers.

In fact, the increase was dramatic, and researchers believe that as many as 75% of fatal accidents that they believed were being saved, were actually occurring two years later.  According to the study, which has been published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, since graduated driver licensing programs were introduced, there have been at least 1,348 fewer deadly accidents involving sixteen-year-old drivers.  However, there were at least 1,086 more accidents involving eighteen-year-old drivers.  Overall, graduated driver’s licensing programs seem to have been successful, but the impact seems to have been staggered.

Researchers have a reason for this spike in fatal accidents involving eighteen-year-old drivers.  They believe that many teen drivers are possibly postponing their driving privileges until they turn 18, because they don’t want to be saddled with driving restrictions.  18-year-old drivers can skip most provisional driver restrictions, like those that involve driving at night time and driving with teenage passengers in the car.

As a result, there are likely more numbers of 18-year-olds on the roads, with no experience under their belt.  In California, where graduated driver’s licensing programs for teenagers have tougher standards, the number of 16 and 17-year-olds appying to obtain licenses has dropped, but the number of 18-year-olds and 19- year-olds has not.

There’s another theory for this spike in accidents involving 18-year-old drivers.  Many graduated licensing programs involve the use of co-drivers to help a teenage driver stay safe while he gets his experience.  The researchers believe that having co-drivers protects teen drivers at the cost of experience.  When a teen motorist depends heavily on a co driver, his driving skills may not be honed enough to handle driving on his own.  These drivers are more likely to be involved in deadly accidents.

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