Distracted Driving Leading Cause of Car Accidents for Teen Drivers, AAA Study Shows

Tue, 4/24/2018 - 6:54 pm by Kirsten Rincon

Mostly due to their inexperience, teen drivers are at greater risk of getting into a car crash than older drivers. In the past, the most common factors behind crashes involving teen drivers used to be fatigue and drunk driving, but lately, they have been replaced by another risky driving behavior – distracted driving, which has become an epidemic on U.S. roadways. According to a new study, distraction is now the leading cause of accidents for teen drivers, who have the highest crash rate of any demographic group in the country.

The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety conducted a study to find out what behaviors lead up to collisions involving teenage drivers, analyzing thousands of accidents that it has recorded using cameras mounted on the windshield of cars driven by teens. The findings from the study were published in the report called “Using Naturalistic Data to Assess the Prevalence of Environmental Factors and Driver Behaviors in Teen Driver Crashes”. The AAA analyzed the events recorded in 1,700 videos involving teen drivers getting into a collision, and found that in 58% of them, distraction was a contributing factor. Furthermore, the report reveals that 89 percent of the accidents caused by driver distraction were road-departure, and 76 percent were rear-end collisions.

Also, the AAA breaks down the types of distractions leading up to the collisions in the videos it analyzed. The report states that interaction with passengers was the biggest distraction, as it was a factor in 15% of the accidents. This is followed by using a cell phone (12%), looking at something in the vehicle (10%), looking at something outside the vehicle (9%), singing or dancing to music (8%), grooming (6%), and reaching for an object inside the vehicle (6%).

Another significant finding is that drivers using cell phones were not paying attention to the road for an average of 4.1 seconds during the last 6 seconds prior to the accident, and fifty percent of them didn’t react at all in a rear-end crash, which means that they didn’t have the time or didn’t managed to take evasive maneuvers or brake in order to avoid a collision.

This is an important study that once again shows just how dangerous distracted driving is. The findings can help parents, policymakers and law enforcement figure out how to prevent this risky driving behavior that is a serious threat to public safety. The AAA says that distracted driving laws need to be much tougher on teen drivers, asking for bans on all cellphone use by teenagers behind the wheel in all states. On top of that, Bob Darbelnet, the foundation’s CEO, says that there should only be one non-family member inside a car driven by a teenager during the first six months after receiving a driver’s license.

Also, these videos can serve as a great reminder to parents, who are advised to lead by example and avoid distractions while driving, given that various studies show that the vast majority of teens report constantly seeing their parents using their cell phones behind the wheel.