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The number of 16- and 17-year-old drivers who died in traffic accidents rose significantly in the first half of 2012, creeping back toward what traffic safety experts called "unacceptable" levels, according to research published Tuesday.
The report — a preliminary compilation of data from all 50 states and the District of Columbia by the Governors Highway Safety Association — found that 240 16- and 17-year-olds died behind the wheel from January through June 2012. That's a 19 percent increase over the same period in 2011 and a startling 26 percent more than in the first half of 2010.
It also outpaces the rise in overall traffic deaths last year, which increased by 5 percent, the National Safety Council reported last week.
The report identified no single overarching reason teen mortality jumped. Instead, it theorizes that two-decade-old state regulations on the youngest drivers haven't kept up with the teen driving population, which has been given more reasons to drive by the improving economy. And like numerous other traffic safety groups, the governors association warned of the distractions posed by cellphones and other electronics.
"We know from research and experience that teen drivers are not only a danger to themselves, but also a danger to others on the roadways," said Kendall Poole, chairman of the governors' safety organization and director of the Tennessee Governor's Highway Safety Office.
The rise in deaths last year is "unacceptable," he said.
Separate data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, or NHTSA, peg traffic accidents as the single biggest killer of U.S. teens, accounting for more than third of all deaths among Americans 15 to 20 years old.
Read the full report, including state-by-state data (.pdf)
Until 2011, the number of deaths among beginning drivers had been falling since 2002, when it hit a modern annual record of 544. That was roughly a decade after states began adopting so-called graduated driver licensing laws, which impose restrictions on the youngest drivers in stages as they approach age 18.
All 50 states now have such laws, and increases in deaths over the last two years could simply reflect officials' and parents' letting their guard down as the laws have become a part of everyday life, said Allan Williams, former chief scientist for the National Highway Traffic Safety Institute, who conducted the study.
The improving economy may also be an incentive for more teenagers to drive, statistically increasing their risk, Williams said.
Whatever the reason, "based on 2011 final data and the early look at 2012, it appears that we are headed the wrong direction," he said.
The report called on states to renew their focus on graduated driving laws and to establish programs to help parents keep their children safe.
"Parents have a huge responsibility to ensure safe teen driving behavior," said Barbara Harsha, executive director the governors group. "States can facilitate this by providing innovative programs that bring parents and teens together around this issue."
The NHTSA has proposed new federal grants to help states fine-tune and enforce their graduated driver laws. To qualify for the money, states would have to require new drivers to go through a learner's permit stage and an intermediate permit stage before they could get full licenses.
Public comment on the proposals closes April 23.
The proposals closely mirror a three-part program to restrict beginning drivers recommended by the governors safety group. That template calls for:
- A learner's permit beginning no earlier than age 16, lasting at least six months and requiring 30 to 50 hours of parent-certified supervision.
- An intermediate stage lasting at least until age 18, including a ban on driving after 9 or 10 p.m., with a limit of one teen passenger.
- A ban on all cellphones and other electronic devices.
"Our main goal is to save lives," said Jeff Bledsoe, sheriff of Dickson County, Tenn., whose state has already put most of those ideas in place.
Dickson especially stressed the ban on electronics behind the wheel, telling NBC station WSMV of Nashville: "With all of the technology we have these days — with cell phones and other items in the vehicle that could take our focus off the roadway — we have to be cautious and know what a huge responsibility it is when we operate a vehicle."
Related
National Safety Council: Traffic deaths surged in 2012
Red state, blue state divide reflected in fatal traffic accidents
Authorities could go even further in West Virginia, where a measure was introduced in the state House last week to require beginning drivers to pass drug tests — three of them, once before they could get a learner's permit, again before they could step up to an intermediate license and one last time before they could get a full license.
"Obviously, any time you can take an opportunity to try and eliminate drugs — and especially in driving — that's obviously a good thing," said Bernie Buttrey, a driver's education instructor in Parkersburg, W.Va.
Buttrey told NBC station WTAP of Parkersburg that he was hesitant because of the constitutional implications, but he said such tests may be reasonable to ensure that beginning teenage drivers remain safe.
"We've passed laws that some people think maybe are excessive in the use of your cellphones, but I think evidence proves that the less you use your cellphone, the less you're distracted," he said. "So this is just maybe another step in the right direction."
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OMG i just ran a red lol
text me back be4 i get hom
Rich parents buy their rich kids fancy and fast cars. The kids do what kids always do with things they haven't earned and get killed doing it. GOOD! Who needs these spoiled brats in the world anyway. Let their rich parents feel some pain finally. It's called Karma.
Hon, it's not just the rich parents. I see middle class folks all around my community buying their kids expensive vehicles. Kids that have not done one thing to earn that vehicle. Some even have better rides than their folks. It's insane!
Ed needs a hug.
If they get a vehical than we should take the phones. This obsession with phones and tech is the problem. Oh and speaking of karma I'll take the odds on the car wreck over the life expectancy of inner city black males in every major metro area in the country carring on like thugs in videos.
Have you talk to a 16 year old lately? They're basically retarded. A 16 year old today is as mature as a 12 year old in 1990. The regression of maturity brought on by "hovering parenting" is very apparent these days.
I have a nephew that said he wasn't ready to drive at 16 and didn't want the responsibility that came with it yet. His cousin was in an accident that killed her boyfriend and I think he is scared of what could happen if he to makes a mistake. I think he is more mature than most 21 year olds.
I did a double take when I read your comment. How offensive. And sadly misinformed.
If the teenagers you talk to are "basically retarded", I suggest you relocate because you are in a bad part of the country. You will find some very bright and knowledgeable teens if you know where to look and how to approach them.
As for crash rates, there are more distractions. Seems like everybody is married to a computer, a tablet, a phone and an an mp3 device these days.
If that's not retarded I don't know what is.
According to the chart they provide, teen accidents are significantly down. If the charts are right, the headline should be: "Teen traffic deaths among 16 and 17 year olds have been cut nearly in half in the last decade".
Brent? Did you mean "talked"? Just hate to see anyone look "retarded" on here.
Brent is correct...they are retarded. Look up the definition, "a delay in development..." A sixteen-year-old today does not have the same skills to function in our current society that a sixteen-year-old thirty years ago had, period. Thirty years ago here in NC, they drove school buses, were responsible for their young passengers, and had fewer accidents than the adult drivers today. You won't find that capability today. We have coddled and sheltered them to the point that their normal development has been slowed...retarded.
What we need to do is make every car a wifi hot spot so everyone can enjoy the internet while they are driving!
you forgot the /sarc tag.... I hope.
Reality vs fiction ?
http://www.nbcnews.com/business/most-2014-gm-cars-will-also-be-wi-fi-hotspot-1C8539395
Ban teen drivers. Problem solved.
Piers Morgan........it IS you isn't it! I'll never forget that odd smell of fear and baby powder :l
Clearly teen traffic deaths are increasing because of the new teen driving laws. It wouldn't be the first time that do gooder laws had exactly the opposite effect as was intended. Look at "gun free zones" as example.
My thoughts exactly. When you delay issuing licenses/permits for a year or two, all you do is delay the time at which those rookie drivers get out on the road and start killing themselves and others.
I worked with accident data for many years (retired now), and I and my co-workers knew what was coming. If states really want to save young lives, they need to implement mandatory, meaningful driver's ed. A lot of it.
Speaking of laws that had the opposite effect, my state implemented a law making it illegal for anyone under 21 to text while driving. The effect was that the kids started holding their phones down in their laps where they couldn't be seen, and cell phone accidents among young drivers went UP significantly. Duh.
Back in the day, at least in NNY, driver's ed was an elective available for free at all public schools. We did have the "stepping stone" licensing. Permits at 16, Limited License at 17 with driver's ed certification and full license at 18. That was in the 80's. The only accident with injury I remember was a single vehicle and driver hopped up on drugs and drunk. Fortunately, he survived.
I think this system worked well. Not everybody can afford hundreds of dollars for driver's training courses but I think that is the key factor in making this kind of system effective.
I also think many parents are too remiss these days. There's not enough time to take Johnny out driving, Oh he'll be fine...the store is only 10 minutes away..., (my personal favorite) @!$%#, he plays those video games enough, he probably knows how to drive better than I do! Sad, but true.
ladyhark,
No cell phones in the 80's.
And the cell phone madness is not limited to teens. A driving license is way too easy to get, and some basic physics lessons about mass and speed could not hurt either.
Economy? Howbout,RESPONSIBILITY! to yourself and surrounding, everchanging circumstances!
Put the PHONE DOWN!
As I point out to my nieces and nephews, when driving, you can ignore the laws of God, the laws of man but you cannot ignore the laws of physics.
As they looked askance at my observation, i explain it simply.
You can be an inexperienced driver or a professional driver, mass and momentum still apply equally.
Once you lose traction, you lose control. You can be a Nascar driver or a kid with Dad's car, the result is the same. The car is spinning.
It cracks me up when my nephews try to explain the wrecked cars with some impossible story why it was not their fault. I ask about speed, road conditions, lighting, attention to driving among other things.
If we can keep our younger members in the family safe until adulthood and some maturity, we can save their lives. I may drive like the old man I am but I have to qualify every year in driving my Crown Vic for my Department. I know what I am doing in a car based on training and experience. Young folk have neither. They just need to listen and comprehend.
There's gotta be a way that car manufacturers can install something in the car that will prevent people from texting/drinking/talking on phone/etc., while they are driving. any ideas?
Judd, they do have tech that can determine where an individual is looking. They could have an annoying warning system that would go off anytime it was determined the driver was looking away from where they should be looking for too long.
my thoughts also, If you get within 2 feet of your vehicle while it is running it shuts the phone off. besides the text or call can wait that is what voice mail is for.
Great, so you get a flat tire, in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of freezing cold weather, and you have no spare tire. You want to keep the car running so you can stay warm, but you can't if you want to call for help. How about we make it manditory for schools to have driver's education again instead of going to a private driving school. Also make it manditory that all kids have to take driver's education to graduate, whether they want to get a license or not. Then we make it so that the people who administer the driving tests have to teach the classes. I wouldn't trust these fly by night private companies with my childs drivers education. Who knows what they are teaching. Let the states take charge and make sure these kids are learning what they are supposed to learn.
you really going to freeze to death in ten minutes?
I am sorry but I have more trust in the real drivers education instructors than I do the ones that the department of lack of education would use to teach kids at schools. If the teachers union gets their greedy hands on the drivers education the death rate would skyrocket!!!!
We need to have a good company teaching drivers ed and the kids that really want to learn to drive will not mind going to the classes and learning how to be good and safe drivers.
Your comment about the car and the tire makes no sense at all, sorry but if you had to make a call you would turn your car off for a minute and then make the call and turn it back on if you do not want to get out.
The texting and talking on the phone has gotten way out of hand, it has been shown that it is connected to way to many deaths and injuries! The cell phone is one of the most dangerous items on the road! The texting and talking while driving needs to stop.
If you have kids and you love them, then talk to them about the importance of driving with out distractions and how that text message can wait and so can the call, but if they are so important then pull over and do it on the side of the road or in a parking lot. In a safe manner!
What made you think it would only be 10 minutes? You may have to use your phone again if they can't find you. If you go back to your car, you lose your connection to the outside world. Have you ever experienced 20 below zero air temperature (not even adding in wind chill factor)?
pj-965429.....you do realize that you sound like an idiot, right ?
Yep...lived in Winnipeg, Manitoba for ten years and got stuck with a flat tire in 40 below clear weather one night at 2:00am out on the Perimeter Hwy. There were no cell phones back then and here I am telling this story.
So, MM and culheath do not want to take advantage of the technology available to them. Good for them.....
MM, I just like to stay warm, what is idiotic about that? What is idiotic about telling Disabledvet why I don't like his idea?
Actually, I do take advantage of the technology - I just don't let it take advantage of me or put me in a position to where I solely rely on it for my survival.
Let's face a simple fact: when you can't go for a 20 minute walk and intentionally leave your cellphone at home...you have an addiction problem.
Anyone notice that the line graph shows that teen deaths are down from the previous years - in fact the lowest one. Makes you wonder which is right - the graph or the text.
I personally think that 15 and 16 year olds should have a learner's permit for at least a year before being issued a license.
what they are saying with the graph is that the deaths are climbing if you look 2010 had the lowest number and it has increased ever year since. I do agree that they should get the learners permit earlier and spend more time learning. I started to learn when I was 9 with my father out around farms around my grandmothers.
Ahh...they fixed the graph. When I posted my comment (11:06 pm pst on 2-25-13) the graph showed that 2012 had 140 not 240 and it was blue not red.
With today's available electronics, BLOCKING a cellphone , PDA, etc, while the vehicle is in motion, this would be VERY EASY. Just like auto-door locks and seat belt alarms...
The industry could just BLOCK transmitting or answering, so you could still receive notice of the incoming information. For later reading, when you were PARKED...
Just yesterday I observed three students on a motorbike. Two were riding side-saddle and ALL of them had a cellphone held to their ear...
I've said that for years. Block all incoming or outgoing communications unless the car is in Park or Neutral. If it's that important, pull over. Otherwise, get over your insecurities and wait until you get where you're going. It's more difficult with motorcycles, but having seen kids riding at 80 mph down the highway wearing shorts and flipflops, I'm not sure blocking their cellphones will do much to save them.
Have Apple, Samsung, etc, subsidize the funeral's costs for creating a device that young kids cannot shi* without. Blocking a cell phone signal in a vehicle would cost pennies compared to the hospital, insurance, and attorney's fees. Have Apple, Samsung and all other cell phone makers subsidize this also.
Create a laws where using a cell phone while driving is a mandatory felony and automatic suspension of driving lic. privelges for 5 or 10 years. This should remove about 70% of the population from the roads. We seemed to have gotten along without them for the last 50,000 years, maybe some types of progress are just plain wrong.
I have yet to see a cellular phone that promotes productivity. We also seemed to have lost that part of learning and knowledge.
Teen death rates are up for the simple facts that kids are texting on their phones, talking on their phones and not paying attention to the road, and the teen drivers are not being trained like they should be....
You want to know why teen driving deaths are up, go drive around a high school in the morning, or at lunch or the end of the day and see how the teens drive. They are very aggressive and do not pay attention and want to show off and are attached to their phones and texting. Not to mention if a girl is driving she has at least 4 other girls with her and they are all constantly talking or texting or putting on their make-up while they are trying to drive and the teen boys all want their music booming, are doing everything they can to show off, and none of them are paying attention to what they are doing!!!!
Maybe it is time to make drivers education mandatory again, raise the age limit for the license, make it illegal for texting a driving, if you get caught you loose your drivers license for a year, or if you cause an accident while texting you go to jail, make it so underage drivers who get a ticket it is an automatic license suspension and set the number of passengers that can be in a kids car and maybe even go back to the days when kids were not allowed to drive their cars to school. Maybe do not allow under age kids to have a car until they are at least 17.5 years old and until they can use the parents car, take the bus to school or get a ride from their parents.
I find it amazing that the libs are always talking about the emissions of autos but they do not want to put any restriction on all the kids that are driving everywhere and killing each other and other innocent people. Libs want to take away my Constitutional rights to own a firearm because of a bunch of falsified data, but they do not want to take away the kids privileges that is not in the Constitution and there is a bunch of data which proves many of the kids are not capable of driving yet, most kids do not pay attention to the road, or the proof that texting and phone use is part of the problem, is all totally ignored!
Maybe it has to do with future votes rather than safety of the kids???? Using the lib mentality it goes something like this, Who cares if a a couple hundred kids are killed in accidents every year, if we take away their driving privileges or control their privileges then they are not going to vote for us and fall for our propaganda when they turn 18 and we will loose a bunch of usefulidiots!!! That is the lib/progressive/socialist way of thinking!!! They do not really care about anyone or anything it is all just about the votes and the power!
remember the statement "If it can save just one life" well I guess it is time to push that one life foward and ban cellphone use while driving, ban multiple kids in the cars while a kid is driving and make it easier to suspend the kids license if they are caught even talking on the cell phone while driving
I find it quite hilarious though, that in two different places in this article it blames our great and wonderful economy for the rise in teen deaths in car accidents. If the economy has anything to do with it then the teen death rate should be zero because our economy has not gotten better, the cost of living is higher, jobless rate is higher, dollar value is lower and the economy pretty much is in the dumps but, the lib news has to try and throw in the normal propaganda and make it sound like odumbass has done such a wonderful job on getting our economy straight... The lib news takes any chance it can to try and make the usefulidiots believe the world is all great and wonderful since odumbass took office!!!
Your turning this into a political rant is sickening to say the least.
I know you would not want to talk about the facts just a bunch of crap. When the article kept bringing up the economy they made it a political story!! and that is sickening and so is the fact that you do not see that!!!
You had some good point about teens which also apply to most adult behind the wheel. But then your post turned into a empty and meaningless political rant.
Congratulation for you insanity.
Drivers ed isn't going to stop the problem. The person taking it drives all nice and safe while they are being tested (or during the probation periods for teens) and then all bets are off once they have their license..I am talking general drivers here as well and not just teens.
Until the general driving attitude changes in drivers of all ages, until such a time when those blatantly ignored issues called manners and common courtesy (and maybe common sense) once again kicks in, this problem, and not just in driving, will never be solved.
Can someone tell me at what level this is "acceptable"?
The sad thing is the technology exists to prevent any deaths from occurring but it's too expensive to implement and of course it would impinge on someone's freedom (freedom to speed and drive like a maniac(sar)).
Money seems to keep us from advancing as a society.
Maybe we will all collectively "grow up" one day and see past our materialistic wants or needs and the costs wouldn't matter anymore.
And we supposedly hold life in such a high degree...
Better yet maybe we should all grow up and start realizing that we are responsible for our own actions and that if something is not safe to do while driving then we do not do it, or if speeding is dangerous and can put others at risk as well as our selves then we do not do it!!! If kids are not capable of making the decisions to not drive and text or phone then maybe they are not mature enough and should not have a license!!
It would probably be better if we started teaching our kids to accept responsibility for their actions instead of blaming everyone else!!!!
Technology and controlling everyones movements and watching everything we do and having controls that do not allow us to do things is not the answer. At what point do we start asking who gets to make the decisions of what we are allowed to do or not do??? Who is watching our every moment?? I myself would much rather make my own decisions and not have some government controlled agency deciding what I can and cannot do in the future!! I am quite capable of making my own decisions without the government making them for me, or some computer making it for me.
Would there be less death (per capita) if we all used horse and buggy ? Or if we all walked or trekked ?
Eventually we will get there, after all teen death was cut by half in the last decade, but do not forget that every step that a society take toward progress is met with resistance from the like of Mr. garrie-I-turn-everything-into-a-political-rant.
Once again you turned this into a political platform.
Using technology doesn't mean you lose control. You totally missed the point.
That might be possible if adults did that first - after all, most kids do what they see their "responsible" adults do and not what they are told. It's that "action speaks louder than words" thing.
It can and unfortunately frequently does.
Its probably going up because of the increase in the amount of texting while driving. Give stupid people an entertainment source while driving and that usually happens.
The answer to this problem is simple. Ban all cars and teens and a lot of other people will not die! Think of all the money we would have to for our BIG Government to tax and spend / waste!
I have teen cousins and their moms that I absolutely will not ride with because of their texting habits. I live in a very small community and I can attest to the fact that in the mornings before school starts, the lunch hour and right after school is the best time to get out on the road here if you want to be slammed into by a kid on the cell phone. My own little know-it-all sixteen year old cousin who got a new car for Christmas almost ran head on into me just the other day. I could see her plainly with her head down as she crossed the yellow line and then nearly flipped when she looked up and over corrected. But WTH...she learned it from her Mom. So if parents are doing it you better believe their kids are going to do the same.
Maybe it is the area I am in but this doesn't surprise me. Now, before I get rotten tomatoes tossed at me here...I watched a teen girl, about 18 or so, run two stop signs yesterday because, presumably, she wanted to be "ahead" of the cars for which she would have had to wait. I live near a high school as in just aobut across the street and on a day when I may be home from work during hte week, the time around 3 pm when the teen drivers get out of class is nothing less than dangerous to be anywhere near the road. In the last three years we have had no less than five accidents with teens hitting other cars and in two cases, losing control of their vehicles and slamming into cars parked in driveways; one was a drive off that got caught later on as two of us were able to get a plate ID. That one was an 18 yr old boy who showed nothng but pure attitude and contempt that he was in court. He lost his lecense until age 25 and had to pay for the damage, or his parents did, but, it wouldn't surprise me if he is still on the road.
As a basic observation, the drivers today at any age are a hazard. I don't know what it is about basic driving courtesies but there seems to be a competition to see who doens't have to use a signal light, who gets to travel the fastest, who can get closest in tailgating and why people seem to think them getting to their destination (safely or the quickest) is so much mor eimportant than the other drivers on the road geting to theirs. Unless the driver is driving an emergency vehicle on full siren alert, no one has the right to drive like a complete moron. Now, don't get me wrong, I do follow traffic so if the speeds are running 10 over the limit, I am doing the same but I learned to drive in an area, and age I guess, when signal lights wer eused routinely and which I still use. I don't cut people off and I give plenty of warning, and room, when changing lanes. Why people insist on shoving into a lane in front of me three inches from my bumper when there was no one in front of them in my lane or the one they were changing from is beyond me.
I watched an accident happen this morning on the way to work. Mr "I am more important than all of you schmucks since I am driving a big truck so get out of my way" was weaving in and out of traffic going more than well over the speed limit. He cut in too close ahead of another car when crossing from three lanes over, clipping the car and sending it off the road into the center guardrail. Fortunately the driver in the car wasn't injured since his airbags worked properly but was scared half out of his mind; the driver that caused the accident, I would say early 30s, was ticked because he was going to be late for work. The police officer was just as serious when he handed the guy a ticket for reckless driving. To me I thought the guy should have been arrested but.....
I'll take a 16 year old driver with a cell phone and a beer with the radio blasting over an 80 year old driver any day any time.
The fact that the 80 year old driver is still alive and still driving should be a clue to you.
The 16 year old with cellphone and a beer has very little chance of reaching 80.
The majority of teenage drivers have had zero consequences in life prior to getting a license...therefore the teenage driver undertakes driving with the same attitude...whatever I decide to do will be ok...so they twist the steering wheel and twist their heads talking to their friends until they meet the undertaker or are lucky enough to have a few teachable moments that gets them in touch with reality...
In our state we have the Graduated Driver License program...Which I totally dissagree with, there are 3 phases to get a license.
When did a teen actually listen to their parents about anything, let alone driving.
My daughter was basically handed a license through this system, without even a basic driving skills road test. All she had to do was past a simple written test.
Well it wasn't long before she totalled her vehicle.
Driver's Ed should be a requirement to graduate high school.
Parents have 16 years to teach their children to drive as they do. The time a driving instructor has to unteach that is measured in hours.
Any questions...?