Teenage drivers’ records improving

A decrease in teen auto collisions may be related to graduated licensing laws, suggests an Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) report.
According to the US report, based on crashes of all severities, the crash rate per mile for 16-19 year-olds is four times the rate for drivers 20 and older, with the risk being the highest at age 16, the report noted.
But, statistics show a picture that is improving.
The number of teens killed in crashes in 2005 was the lowest since 1992, despite the largest teen population since 1977.
During 2005, 3,889 people aged 16-19 were killed on US roads, and an estimated 1.9 million were involved in police-reported crashes, marking an 8% decrease in deaths and 20% fewer police-reported crashes than occurred in areas targeted by many graduated licensing laws: fatal night time crashes and fatal crashes involving multiple teenage passengers, the researchers wrote.
“We didn’t set out to evaluate the effectiveness of graduated licensing laws, but our findings are consistent with the increased presence of such laws, many of which restrict night time driving and driving with teenage passengers in the vehicle,” said Anne McCartt, IIHS senior vice president for research and an author of the study.
“We can’t definitively point to graduated licensing or other factors that would explain the big drop in fatal crashes among teenagers,” McCartt added, suggesting that it may be because teens were licensed for less time during the year they turned 16, because restrictions on when and with whom they could driver reduced their exposure, or because of longer learner’s permit periods.
Recently Nova Scotia and British Columbia announced proposed changes to their graduated licensing programs and Prince Edward Island is moving to implement a graduated system.