The numbers are in and it looks like good news on the teen driving front. According to new U.S. report, fatal crashes involving drivers aged 16 to 19 have dropped by more than 55 percent over the past 10 years.
While officials say quote "many factors are at play," they agree the advent of new safety features in cars and graduated licenses are the reason for the dramatic drop.
According to Ruth Shults, an injury prevention researcher at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta who worked on the report, graduated licenses can decrease the overall crash rate of young teen drivers by a whopping 20 to 40 percent by either putting less teen drivers on the road at night, or by restricting them as passengers.
And although Eric Teoh, a senior highway statistician at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety in Arlington, Virginia--who was not involved in the study-- said some teens may not be getting in accidents because they haven't gotten behind the wheel yet, he did say, "An 18-year-old novice is probably more prepared maturity-wise than a 16-year-old novice."
While officials say quote "many factors are at play," they agree the advent of new safety features in cars and graduated licenses are the reason for the dramatic drop.
According to Ruth Shults, an injury prevention researcher at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta who worked on the report, graduated licenses can decrease the overall crash rate of young teen drivers by a whopping 20 to 40 percent by either putting less teen drivers on the road at night, or by restricting them as passengers.
And although Eric Teoh, a senior highway statistician at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety in Arlington, Virginia--who was not involved in the study-- said some teens may not be getting in accidents because they haven't gotten behind the wheel yet, he did say, "An 18-year-old novice is probably more prepared maturity-wise than a 16-year-old novice."
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