Car Crashes

In an article from the nytimes says that car accidents and crashes are the leading cause of death for people aged 16 to 20 years old. Image is from flickr. There are about 5,500 or more teenagers who are drivers or passengers that die from car crashes each year. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, about 450,000 teenagers are injured, 27,000 of them requiring hospitalization because of these accidents. From the amount of people who are killed 63 percent are the drivers and about 37 percent are passengers. Males make up two thirds of the fatalities in these crashes. Teenagers make up only 6 percent of all drivers but are implicated in 14 percent of fatal crashes which is almost nine times the rate of the population.

In reaction to this problem the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that parents have teenagers sign a “driving contract” that goes over when the teenager can use the car and who can be in it. They also recommend that if the contract is violated that they should take away the privileges. I think this is a good idea because parents and teens are on a contract which says what you can do with the car and what you can’t. I personally used to skip a lot of school in high school and my parents tried to track my mileage to see if I was actually in school or not and that didn’t work for too long. Eventually I broke the rules so many times they stopped caring. I think this is a way better way to achieve a common ground with driving expectations.

Another thing that the article explains is how important it is to have experience and it really does matter. The article says that factors like “alcohol, drugs and distractions like the stereo naturally come to mind, the single biggest reason for both fatal and nonfatal crashes involving teenage drivers is inexperience” (JANE E. BRODY ,2009). In a recent study the highest rate for crashes usually happened within the first month of getting your license and the rate drops down after 5 months of time.

Distractions in the vehicle contribute to accidents for both teenage and adult drivers. But distractions are a more serious problem for beginner drivers because they tend to look away from the road for longer periods and may then drift out of their lane or fail to respond in time to a need or hazard. When I first got my license I got in an accident because I looked down at my radio to change the station. The American Academy of Pediatrics noted that “eating, drinking and adjusting the radio or the climate controls each cause more crashes than cellular phone use…Hands-free cell phones have not reduced the risk significantly”.

Teenagers also tend to be greater risk-takers than adults because they think everything they do is right. They are less likely than adults to use seat belts, especially when driving with other teenagers even though it saves lives. In 2004 a study conducted about teenage car crashes says that 58 percent of people died as a result of not wearing a seat belt. The article says that teenager’s use of seat belts is least likely in the most dangerous of conditions including, when driving at night, under the influence of alcohol or with several teenage passengers.