Fatalities and Injuries: National Teen Driving Statistics

Statistics of Teen Car Accidents

• Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for teenagers.
• 16 year-olds have higher crash rates than drivers of any other age.
• 16-year-olds are three times more likely to die in a motor vehicle crash than the average of all drivers.
• 3,467 drivers age 15-20 died in car crashes in 2005.
• Drivers age 15-20 accounted for 12.6 percent of all the drivers involved in fatal crashes and 16 percent of all the drivers involved in police-reported crashes in 2005.
• Graduated drivers license programs appear to be making a difference. Fatal crashes involving 15- to 20-year olds in 2005 were down 6.5 percent from 7,979 in 1995, to the lowest level in ten years.
  
• The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimates the economic impact of auto accidents involving 15-20 year old drivers is over $40 billion.
• According to a 2005 survey of 1,000 people ages 15 and 17, conducted by the Allstate Foundation
  • More than half (56 percent) of young drivers use cell phones while driving,
  • 69 percent said that they speed to keep up with traffic
  • 64 percent said they speed to go through a yellow light.
  • 47 percent said that passengers sometimes distract them.
  • Nearly half said they believed that most crashes involving teens result from drunk driving.
• 23 percent of teen drivers killed in 2005 were intoxicated, according
  to NHTSA.
  
• Statistics show that 16 and 17-year-old driver death rates increase with each additional passenger (IIHS).

• Auto Injuries
• Auto Deaths Decline
• Fatality Statistics (2000-2005)
• National Teen Driving Statistics

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Up to date information on car accidents from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.