Teen Driving

Mother handing teenage daughter car keys

 

Teen drivers have crash rates nearly 4 times those of drivers 20 and older per mile driven. Immaturity leads to speeding and other risky habits, and inexperience means teen drivers often don’t recognize or know how to respond to hazards.

Graduated licensing reduces teens’ driving risk. Graduated licensing allows teens to practice driving with supervision before getting their license and restricts driving after they are licensed. Today all states have at least some elements of graduated licensing. The current best practices are a minimum intermediate license age of 17, a minimum permit age of 16, at least 65 required hours of supervised practice driving, and, during the intermediate stage, a night driving restriction starting at 8 p.m. and a ban on all teen passengers.

Alcohol is a factor in many teen crashes. Although young drivers are less likely than adults to drink and drive, their crash risk is higher when they do. The combination of drinking and driving is made worse by teenagers’ relative inexperience both with drinking and with driving.

 

In 2022, 2,883 teenagers (ages 13-19) died in the United States from crash injuries. Such injuries are one of the leading causes of death in this age group

Teenagers drive less than all but the oldest people, but their numbers of crashes and crash deaths are disproportionately high. The fatal crash rate per mile driven for 16-17 year-olds is about 3 times the rate for drivers 20 and older. Based on police-reported crashes of all severities, the crash rate for 16-19 year-olds is nearly 4 times the rate for drivers 20 and older. Risk is highest at age 16. Based on data from the 2016-17 National Household Travel Survey, the crash rate per mile driven is just over 1½ times as high for 16 year-olds as it is for 18-19 year-olds.

 

Immaturity and inexperience

Both age and experience have strong effects on teenage drivers’ crash risk. Young drivers tend to overestimate their own driving abilities and, at the same time, underestimate the dangers on the road.

Young drivers’ immaturity is apparent in risky driving practices such as speeding. At the same time, teenagers’ lack of experience behind the wheel makes it difficult for them to recognize and respond to hazards.

Characteristics of teens’ fatal crashes include:

  • Driver error. Compared with adults’ fatal crashes, those of teens more often involve driver error.
  • Speeding. Excessive speed is a factor in just over a quarter of teens’ fatal crashes.
  • Single-vehicle crashes. Many fatal crashes involve only the teen’s vehicle. Typically these are high-speed crashes in which the teenage driver loses control.
  • Passengers. Just over half of teen passenger deaths occur in crashes with teen drivers. Studies have shown that the presence of passengers increases crash risk among teenage drivers but decreases crash risk among drivers ages 30 and older.
  • Night driving. Per mile driven, the fatal crash rate of 16-19 year-olds is about 4 times as high at night as it is during the day. Based on the 2016-17, teenagers’ rate of fatal nighttime crash involvements is nearly 3 times as high as the rate for adults age 30-59.

 

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