Facts + Statistics: Teen drivers

Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death among teens according to the Centers for Disease Control’s Teen Driver Fact Sheet. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 1,908 drivers age 15 to 20 died in motor vehicle crashes in 2016, basically unchanged from 1,903 in 2015.

Drivers age 15 to 20 accounted for 9 percent of all drivers involved in fatal crashes in 2016 and 12 percent of all drivers involved in police-reported crashes. In contrast, young drivers accounted for 5.4 percent of total drivers in the United States.

Twenty-four percent of drivers ages 15 to 20 who were killed in motor vehicle crashes in 2016 had been drinking some amount of alcohol; 19 percent were alcohol-impaired, which is defined by a blood alcohol content of 0.08 grams per deciliter or higher. Almost half (47 percent) of the young drivers killed in crashes in 2016 where restraint use was known were unrestrained at the time of the crash

According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IHHS), graduated licensing systems in U.S. states and Canadian provinces have reduced crashes substantially. Two national studies by the IIHS  and the Highway Loss Data Institute found that strong restrictions on nighttime driving and teenage passengers, along with delaying licensing age, reduce fatal crashes and insurance losses for teenage drivers. In addition, the studies found that delaying permit age reduces fatal crashes and that increasing practice hours reduces insurance losses.

A 2018 study from Global Telematics at LexisNexis® Risk Solutions, a U.K. risk management consulting company, showed that drivers between the ages of 17 and 19 who were killed or seriously injured in crashes in the U.K. fell by 35 percent since 2011. (By contrast, fatalities among young drivers, age 15 to 20, rose 4.3 percent in the United States between 2011 and 2016.) The study says that drivers of all ages are 16 percent less likely to die in crashes when they use telematic insurance, known as usage-based insurance (UBI) in the United States. UBI analyzes data about a driver’s behavior submitted by an electronic device in the driver’s car.

Motor Vehicle Deaths Per 100,000 Persons By Age, 2016

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Source: Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

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