Road to Ruin: Car crashes are top teen killer
Current Events, April 8, 2005
VIENNA, Va. -- For Eric Johnson, May 27, 2004, was the kind of day that every 16-year-old dreams about.
After cruising through his driver's test and wrapping his fingers around a brand-new driver's license, Eric arrived home to find a shiny 2003 Mazda Protege waiting in the driveway.
The black Mazda was Eric's dream car. But the dream didn't last long. On September 17, less than four months after he first got behind the wheel, Eric lost control of his car while speeding down a winding road in Virginia. He crashed into a tree and died instantly.
Eric's mom, Janet Celly, is still haunted by the death of her popular, outgoing son. "You just
don't expect that this is going to be about you or your kid," she told NBC. "[The accident]
permeates my entire life, my every thought."
Experts say tragedies like Eric's are far too common. Car crashes are the leading cause of death of teenagers in the United States. According to recently released statistics, about 10 U.S. teens ages 16 to 19 die in teen-driven car accidents every day. And even though teens make up only 6.7 percent of all motorists in the United States, they account for 14 percent of the fatal crashes.
Officials say teens' inexperience and recklessness on the road have a lot to do with the deadly statistics.
"You've got [teen] drivers ... who haven't been made aware of just how dangerous driving is,"
North Carolina Trooper T. J. Carter told the News & Record. "They think these cars are toys.
They don't pay attention to speed-limit signs or take care in changing lanes. They're just
driving."
Danger Zone
Like many teens, Eric liked to put the pedal to the metal. After the accident, his friends recalled having told him to slow down on several occasions. "We would just say, 'Come on, Eric. Chill out,'" Melanie Hardcastle, 16, told reporters.
But, Eric didn't take his friends' advice. At the time of his crash, he was driving 67 miles per hour (mph) without a seat belt in a 35-mph zone and had veered across the double yellow line to pass a car.
Speeding is especially risky for young drivers because they are more prone to making errors and have less experience on the road. Seventy-seven percent of fatal crashes involving 16-year-olds behind the wheel are caused by driver error.
Eric's age also put him at risk. Sixteen-year-old drivers are nearly five times as likely to be
involved in a fatal crash as drivers 20 and older.
"They're the youngest, so they're all inexperienced [drivers] at that age. They're pushing the limits ... and they don't really have the controls over risk taking in terms of judgment and decision making," Allan Williams, former chief scientist at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, told USA Today.
Driving with teen passengers also increases teens' odds of getting into an accident, experts say, because young drivers may be distracted by talking or may take more risks on the road
to impress their friends. Forty percent of 16-year-old drivers involved in fatal crashes in 2003 had one or more teen passengers.
"Packing a car with a bunch of teenagers--it's just a disaster waiting to happen," Brian Lowe, a West Lafayette, Ind., police officer told reporters.
Nighttime driving is also risky. Teen drivers are three times as likely as older drivers to be
involved in fatal crashes between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m., according to the insurance institute.
Sixteen-year-olds are twice as likely to die at night as during the day; darkness makes it harder for a driver to see and react to obstacles.
Street Smarts
Almost every state has laws restricting teen drivers in the months or years after they get a
license. Twenty-eight states restrict the number of passengers teen drivers can have, and 38
states restrict teens' nighttime driving.
But, the restrictions are not always rigorously enforced, and their severity varies from state to
state. In Alabama, for instance, 16-year-olds can have up to three teenage passengers and can drive after midnight in certain situations. "There's so much research that has shown [that
limiting teen drivers] makes a huge difference that we have been trying almost desperately to
get [our law] upgraded," Alabama traffic safety chief Rhonda Pines told USA Today.
Veronica Betancourt, a college student, lost her 16-year-old sister, Alicia, in a car crash in
September. She is urging legislators to make licensing laws stronger. "Amidst the confusion of grief, one thing stands clear for me: Driving laws must protect teenagers," she said.
Some people say laws alone aren't enough. After losing five friends to car crashes, Jeremy
Merrill, a senior at Camarillo High School in California, founded A Promise to Drive Safe, a
group that asks teens to drive carefully in memory of friends who died in car accidents.
Jeremy hopes his group will help teens learn from their peers' deadly mistakes. He knows he
has. After losing his friends, "I will never drive the same," he told Current Events.
Get Talking
Tell students that car accidents are the leading cause of death of teenagers. Ask students: Why
might teen drivers be more likely to get in accidents?
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