2017 Teen Driver Car Accident Statistics

  • 2,526 teens were killed in crashes nationwide
  • 17,321 teen drivers in Pennsylvania alone were involved in crashes
  • Nine percent of teenage motor accidents involved distracted driving
  • 1,830 drivers aged 15-20 were killed in alcohol-related crashes
  • 22 percent of teen drivers were not wearing a restraint during a crash, but account for 57 percent of fatalities

The worst thing that can happen a parent is to suffer the death of a child. All of us hope that our children will greatly outlive us. Yet, there’s only so much we can do to keep them in one piece. Monitoring their driving is a big one.

I can recall the driving habits I “developed” as a teenager-they were nothing short of atrocious. The accelerator had two common positions- idling, and plastered against the floorboards. Only rarely was it placed somewhere in between! The car I drove was not a superb example of the automotive designers art-a 1967 Oldsmobile Cutlass 4-door with a 330 cube V-8 and a 4-barrel carburetor. It had a soft suspension, small, narrow tires and a light rear end. Not what you would call a sports car, but it was great for whipping donuts in a snow-covered parking lot. The trunk could easily hold two cases of Point, Pfeiffer’s, or Howenstein-the cheapest suds we could find. Certainly not the best beer in the world, but it got the job done.
Miraculously, I survived.

The telematics devices available today could be made programmable so as to monitor items like acceleration and deceleration in all three axes: up/down, backwards/forwards, left/right – store GPS coordinates at whatever time interval the parents decide is appropriate, and, of course, could be programmed to record miles driven.

This information could be stored locally within the device attached to the car, transmitted through cell towers to cell phones or home computers, or any combination of these. The information could be for parents only, insurance companies, or both.
Monitoring a child’s driving habits will likely have a significant effect on their behavior behind the wheel, not to mention accident diagnostics were this ever to happen.

The telematics device is not an all-encompassing fix for careless driving behavior, but it’s a good start.

Recommended Posts