Study: Teens likely to cause crash in first month of driving

Puppies have an embarrassing tendency to flood the carpets with excitement in their first months of life: careful science and research by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety tells something similar of teen driving: Teenage drivers are twice as likely to crash in their first month of driving, when compared to their first year of driving.

Without entirely mocking the study, let’s get to the root of the problem: distractions. AAA researchers suggest that teens are the most likely of drivers to do things like not use turn signals, text while driving and playing with the stereo or satellite navigation system.

Typically, American teens may have access to their parents quicker, trickier cars, but often they own cheaper smaller cars, which does not seem to be a variable in this test, which does not cover fatalities or injuries. The AAA study merely states tendencies for when teen drivers become house broken. The good news coming out of the study though is that these experiences tend to teach well, certainly better than driver’s ed.

The study found that teens having left-turn accidents mostly stopped committing them in the following study period. In the end, AAA suggested that parents and adults should play a larger part in supervising young drivers than in the past, both as a second pair of eyes and of course for appropriate instruction.

– By: Sawyer Sutton

Source: Automotive