The American Automobile Association (AAA) reached the conclusion by linking the reduction in deaths for all road users to the decrease in car crashes caused by teens. Therefore, it seems that most of the people who lose their lives following car accidents caused by teen drivers are other than teen drivers themselves. That means that teenagers' style of driving is a real menace to the lives of other road users.
The analysis made by AAA shows that that nearly one-third of people killed in crashes caused by drivers ages 15 to 17 are teen drivers themselves. But, the worrying side of the story is that about two-thirds of the victims are passengers, people from other vehicles, pedestrians, cyclists and so on.
“For every teen driver killed in a crash, almost twice as many other people die, which underscores the link between teen driver safety and the safety of everyone on the road,” explained AAA President and CEO Robert L. Darbelnet.
Through the analysis, AAA wants to emphasize that the drop in teen crashes is extremely beneficial for the road safety and encourage parents to involve more in the education of their children so that they learn more about road responsibility.
“During the last decade, as states improved their teen licensing systems and AAA has helped parents get more involved, we have seen reductions in teen driver deaths and even larger reductions in the number of other people killed,” said Darbelnet. “Clearly, measures put into place to save teen drivers help us all.”
More importantly, statistics show that between 1998 and 2007, teen car crashes killed 28,138 people, of whom 10,388 (36.9%) were teen drivers themselves. The other 17,750 (63.1%) deaths included 8,829 passengers of the teen drivers, 6,858 occupants of other vehicles driven adult drivers and 2,063 non-motorists and others.
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