Teen Driving

Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for teenagers. Fourteen percent of all deaths caused by motor vehicle accidents are teenagers. Teenage deaths due to cars occur a little over fifty percent of the time on weekends. Of all teen drivers being killed in car accidents, forty five percent of the time there is a passenger in the car. Statistics show that 16 and 17-year-old driver death rates increase with each additional passenger. Speeding is a major factor in teenagers driving. Of all injured teenagers in car accidents one third of them were caused by speeding. When teenagers stay up late there is more of a chance for them to get in a car accident due to drowsiness. Single vehicle crashes are most popular in the teenager’s age group. Even though the teenager age group only makes up seven percent of license drivers, it suffers fourteen percent of fatalities and twenty percent of all reported accidents. Sixteen year olds get in wrecks more than any other age. Twenty five percent of all teen drivers in 2003 had a blood alcohol concentration of .08(defined as drunk driving in all 50 states) or greater. In 2001 two thirds of teens killed in car accidents were not wearing a seat belt. Drinking and driving is a problem for drivers also. Alcohol is responsible for almost half of all teen motor vehicle deaths. Almost one-third of the pedestrians 16 years or older who were killed by automobiles were intoxicated. In 1996 and 1997, approximately 1.5 million individuals were arrested for drunk or drugged driving. This is a ratio of one out of every 122 licensed vehicle operators. New data from the Department of Transportation show that alcohol was involved in15, 935 deaths or 38.4 percent of traffic fatalities in 1998. In the United States about 600,000(or ten percent) of all police reported car crashes were alcohol related. Each year about 534,000 people suffer injuries in alcohol related traffic crashes. People not wearing seatbelts has