Autoblog

Nobody would argue that the potential for lost-life is the worst thing about teen crashes, but the related monetary expenses are also rather staggering. AAA estimates that teen crashes ended up costing more than $34 billion annually in medical expenses, lost work, property damage, quality of life loss and other related costs in 2006 alone. According to AAA, fifteen to seventeen year-old drivers were involved in nearly a million crashes in 2006, injuring 406,427 people and killing 2,541. Each fatality carries an average cost of $3.841 million while injury accidents post an average of $50,512.

According to their research, AAA suggests that states should take up graduated driver licensing strategies, which they say are proven to reduce fatal crashes involving teen drivers by an average of 38 percent. Browse through the press release after the break for the whole set of sad statistics.

[Source: AAA]

Have teenagers gone nuts? The Federal Highway Administration is reporting that the percentage of teenagers with driver's licenses is going down. Yeah, decreasing! What is up with that?

When I was growing up, my teenage years focused on just one objective... driving. All I wanted was to get my driver's license. That little card with your picture on it was the golden ticket. You could borrow your parent's car, fill the tank (and grab a candy bar) for $20, and nobody could reach you until you returned. We didn't have cell phones, text messaging or GPS tracking. A driver's license represented freedom.

So, what happened? Experts aren't blaming unmotivated teenagers. Instead, they point the finger at the environment in which we are raising our kids. In today's world, parents are much more likely to chauffeur their teenagers from place to place. Tighter state laws govern when kids can drive, and in many cases legislation has pushed the driving age limit higher. Fewer high schools are offering driver's education classes, forcing parents to pay for more expensive private instruction, and steeper rates are making insurance cost-prohibitive for the high-risk teen-age category. Top it all off with gasoline at more than three-dollars per gallon, and maybe a driver's license just doesn't represent what it used to.

[Source: New York Times]

Australia's new series of commercials aimed at keeping young male drivers from speeding doesn't waste time with complex morality tales or blood-splattered movies or shocking statistics. The premise is this: speed, and you're not, well ... endowed. Unhappy with results from more traditional messages about the dangers of speeding, the Roads and Traffic Authority decided to equate speeding with people openly calling a driver out as uncool in one of those unique Aussie ways they have for these things. The aim is "to make speeding socially unacceptable." According to the RTA's stats, they've finally found a way to get a young man's attention.

Thanks for the tip, Craig

[Source: New South Wales RTA]