Teens Driving with Friends, Dangerous Combo
June 21, 2001
Results from a study of teenage driving habits and accident-related fatalities indicate that teens driving with their friends as passengers are more likely than those driving alone to be involved in a fatal accident. Researchers at Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, Maryland conducted the study.
The study analyzed national fatal automobile crash statistics from 1995. The results were startling. When 16- and 17-year-old drivers were carrying teenage passengers, the rate of death of pedestrians, cyclists and other drivers ("road user death rate") was three times higher than when teen drivers were alone.
The lead researcher, Dr. Li-Hui Chen, suggested that states change their graduated licensing systems to restrict the number of passengers a young driver is allowed to carry. The team of researchers estimated that such restrictions could reduce road user deaths anywhere from 7%-42%. This type of decrease could save between 80 - 490 lives each year.
-- Article Courtesy of InjuryBoard.com
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