Scholarship News

Philadelphia, PA, United States (AHN) – According to a recent study on teen driving statistics, several “critical errors” are often one of the last in a chain of events leading up to a crash. Seventy-five percent of these crashes were due a critical teen driver error, while three common errors accounted for nearly half of all serious crashes.

Spearheaded by the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and State Farm Insurance, researchers found teens are involved in fatal crashes at four times the rate of adults.

Among crashes with a teen driver error:

• Twenty-one percent occurred due to a lack of scanning that is needed to detect and respond to hazards

• Twenty-one percent occurred due to going too fast for road conditions

• Twenty percent occurred due to being distracted by something inside or outside the vehicle.

The researchers noted that environmental conditions, such as poor weather, vehicle malfunction, aggressive driving or physical impairments such as drowsy driving were not the main reasons for teenage accidents.

“This study helps dispel the myth that most teen crashes are due to aggressive driving or thrill-seeking,” said Dr. Allison Curry, lead author and a researcher at CHOP’s Center for Injury Research and Prevention(CIRP).

Some experts believe that laws and policies that address distractions by limiting the number of peer passengers and prohibiting cell phone use among new drivers will help reduce crash rates; however they only address part of the problems.

Based on the review of the findings, many of the 800 crashes reviewed occurred because teen drivers failed to detect and respond to a hazard in time.

Specifically, the act of scanning, which involves observing the surroundings far ahead of the vehicle and side-to-side, not just immediately in front of the hood needs to be focused on during the parent-child driving training.

It is a higher-level skill that typically develops over time with experienced drivers.

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