Newly licensed teens are at a much higher risk for being involved in a car accident in North Carolina. A new study shows that a newly licensed teenage driver in North Carolina is 2 times more likely to crash during their first month of solo driving than they are following 2 years driving experience. The University of North Carolina Highway Safety Research Center was commissioned on behalf of the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety to study the driving behavior of newly licensed drivers.
The study looked at 50 North Carolina families with teenagers applying for a learner's permit. Cameras were installed in their vehicles and recorded activity inside the car, and also activity in front of, and behind the vehicle. Parent interviews were conducted 10 times over the course of a year. The cameras monitored the teens while they were driving with their parents while they had their permits, as well as the first 6 months of solo driving with their provisional license. The study also analyzed the cause of crashes for newly licensed drivers in North Carolina.
In their analysis of the reasons why teens were crashing, they found 3 common behaviors:
-Failure to Reduce Speed
-Not Paying Attention
-Failure to Yield
Their analysis also found that certain types of crashes, such as failure to yield or crashes with left hand turns, occurred with far greater frequency during the initial solo driving experience, but quickly declined as the driver learned and gained experience. Other types of crashes, however, did not decline so quickly and were attributed to the teen not having mastered particular driving skills.
The cameras found several near accident situations resulting from the teen driver's inexperience, but also noted a few instances of passing red lights, texting, and interaction with passengers. Ironically, the behaviors that relate to teenage car accidents were not present when the parent was accompanying the teen. Testers found a very high rate of seatbelt use, and almost no distractions in the vehicle, such as cell phone use, eating or music.
In the study, parents reported that their teens drove an average of 1.6 hourse per week, and that the range of weekly driving was from a mere 20 minutes per week, up to almost 5 hours per week, with 13% of parents reporting no driving by their teen at all. Most driving with parents was found to take place at the same time of day and along the same routes, denying the teen the opportunity to experience more challenging driving conditions, such as heavy traffic or poor weather. Parents also seemed to focus on basic instruction, such as "don't wait so long to hit the brakes", and failed to provide more meaningful instruction, such as "look down the road a bit for brake lights so you know when you need to slow down."
The results of this study puts a great value on the importance of continued parental involvement in the driving learning process, even after the teen has obtained a license.
