Teenage drivers are inexperienced drivers and much more prone to injury in an auto accident than other drivers.
The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration posted a study about the number of young driver's deaths related to car accidents, in an effort to raise safety awareness. Some of the more shocking disclosures are:
• Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of deaths for teenagers in the U.S.
• Each year over 5,000 kids aged 16 to 20 are killed in car accidents.
• On average, a teen dies every hour on weekends.
• About ¼ of those teen auto accident fatalities involve drinking drivers.
• About 60% of passengers who were killed in a teen-age car wreck were not wearing seatbelts.
• Teenage kids are the least likely of all groups to wear seatbelts.
Teen drivers safety is critical and needs to start at home. With the high rates of teenaged drivers and their passengers killed every year, the ball is in our court.
In depth studies have found that one method of reducing teen-age auto accident injury is to delay the licensing of young driver to age 17. To date, New Jersey is the only State to adopt such a requirement, and we have not much chance of that passing in Texas (much to the delight of my teenage son).
Other studies have shown that graduated licensing rules, which generally ease a teen driver into driving, are shown to reduce auto accident fatalities with young drivers.
What we can do in Texas to reduce auto accidents is talk to our children and their friends about the dangers of drinking and driving. Make sure its "cool " to wear seatbelts.
Give our children more drivers training than is required. Ride with them and help them be safer drivers. And most of all, instill a leadership attitude in our girls and boys to take safety first.
Greg Baumgartner is an auto accident lawyer in Houston and founder of the Baumgartner Law firm, which handles car accidents in Houston and across the State of Texas.
