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Why teen driving deaths have tumbled to historic lows

Traffic fatalities are hitting record lows for all drivers, but the drop among teen drivers is especially important, given that traffic accidents are the leading cause of death for teens.

By Andrew Mach, Contributor / May 10, 2012 

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Andrew Poticha, 17, (r.), and Erick Olsen, 17, back out of a parking space at Crystal Lake South High School in Crystal Lake, Ill. Deaths among teen drivers have fallen substantially since the 1970s.

Daniel J. Murphy/Northwest Herald/AP

Teenage driving deaths have registered a historic decrease, dropping 64 percent since 1975, the first year that the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety kept such data.

US traffic deaths for all age groups continue to plunge at a record-shattering pace. An estimated 32,310 people died in traffic accidents in 2011, marking a 1.7 percent year-over-year decline and a seven-year downward trend, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The number of road deaths is the lowest since record keeping began in 1949, well before the creation of the American highway system. But the data underscore the importance of the trend for teens, considering that motor vehicle accidents are the leading cause of death for teenagers, with 3,115 killed in 2010 – down from more than 8,000 in 1975.

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“Without a doubt, the vast reduction of teen driving fatalities has been one of the biggest successes of highway safety we’ve made,” says Jonathan Adkins, a spokesman for the Governor’s Highway Safety Association. “But traffic fatalities are still the No. 1 killer of teens, so while we’ve made dramatic progress, we need to learn from our successes to keep that going.” Read More

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