teen driver safety
Distracted Teen Drivers May Pay the Price
A May 21, 2012 article in Tulsa World talks about the dangers that distracted teen drivers face. The article gives the example of a 16-year-old girl who got into an accident near Inola, Oklahoma, while talking to her friends while driving. Thankfully, in that accident, only one of the passengers suffered relatively minor injuries. However, the girl’s classmate was not as lucky. The other girl, also 16, overcorrected on a Rogers County road and died in the resulting accident. The two accidents were very similar and involved minor distractions caused by teens driving with young passengers on board.
Driving with younger passengers can be a significant risk for teen drivers. According to a study released recently by the AAA Foundation, the risk of car accident deaths for teen drivers increases exponentially with every passenger younger than 21 and quadruples with three or more young passengers. Teen drivers’ inexperience and their tendency to be more social than adults compound this risk. According to the Oklahoma Highway Safety Office’s statistics, teens make up 5.8 percent of Oklahoma’s licensed drivers but account for 12 percent of the state’s car accidents in 2010 and 7.5 percent of Oklahoma’s traffic fatalities.
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Keeping Teen Drivers Safe on Oklahoma’s Roads
Teen drivers are more susceptible to being involved in a car accident in Oklahoma than other drivers for a few different reasons. Inexperience and immaturity combined with alcohol, infrequent use of seat belts, or speeding can lead to serious or even fatal injuries. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has created a multi-tiered strategy to help reduce the number of motor vehicle crashes and fatalities among teen drivers, which consists of increasing seat belt use, implementing a graduated driver licensing program, educating parents on their responsibilities on helping their teen form safe driving habits, and reducing access to alcohol.
The NHTSA reports that teens are involved in three times as many car crashes as other drivers. Statistics show that one of the leading causes of death for teens is auto accidents at 35 percent. Distracted driving, which often involves the use of cell phones, adjusting car radios, talking with other vehicle occupants, drowsy driving, and drug use contribute heavily to teen fatalities in car accidents.
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