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• Driving at Night
• Speeding
• Distractions
• Not Wearing a Seat Belt
• Driving Under the Influence

Major Risks for Teen Drivers

Distractions

• In a national survey of more than 900 teens with driver’s licenses from 26 high schools, teens rated the following behaviors or activities as "extremely" or "very" distracting:
  (Liberty Mutual, 2007)
  • Instant or text messaging while driving - 37%
  • The teen driver’s emotional state – 20%
  • Having several friends in the car – 19%
  • Talking on a cell phone – 14%
  • Eating or drinking – 7%
  • Having a friend in the car – 5%
  • Listening to music – 4%
• More fatal teen crashes occur when passengers (often other teens) are in the car.
  (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 2006)
• Two out of three teens that died as passengers are in vehicles driven by other teens.
  (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 2006)
• When teenage drivers transport passengers there is a greatly increased crash risk. When there are multiple passengers, the crash risk is three to five times greater than when driving alone. The risk is also greater for young drivers aged 16 to 17.
  (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 2006)
• In a 2005 study, researchers found that when teens drive other teens, they tend to drive faster than other motorists and to leave less distance between their vehicles and the vehicles in front of them.
  (National Institute of Health and Westat, 2005)