What Does Your Teen Drive? Almost HALF Of Teen Driver Fatalities Occur In Cars That Are At Least 11 Years Old

A new study has some startling statistics for parents of teen drivers. Forty-eight percent of drivers ages 15 to 17 who died in car crashes from 2008 to 2012 had cars that were at least 11 years old, and nearly a third (29 percent) drove small cars.

The study, authored by two Insurance Institute for Highway Safety researchers, chronicled the government's Fatality Analysis Reporting System data from 2008 to 2012. It appeared Dec. 18 in the journal Injury Prevention.

Read Article

MDarringer - 12/30/2014 11:18:08 AM

+1 Boost

Get your teen a trip to a performance driving school. They have ones specifically for teens. Buying a teen driver who has only the sh!++y drivers training school in his repertoire a safer car is ba$$ ackwards. If you care about your kid, get him/her to a performance driving school.

7msynthetic - 12/30/2014 2:03:14 PM

+1 Boost

it's not about what they drove, it's about how they drove and the responsibilities with owning a car. love to see the stats regarding impairment, texting, speed, drugs, etc. take that out of the equation and I betcha the numbers are way lower.

MDarringer - 12/30/2014 6:50:40 PM

+1 Boost

BINGO!!

MrEE - 12/31/2014 10:17:31 AM

+1 Boost

Hard to draw conclusions from the published stats without seeing the whole picture. Things like when accidents occur, road speed, collision with, at fault, etc.
Looking back, in 1997 small cars were over 30% of sales and stayed above 25% until 2002, so 29% in the study does not seem out of line without knowing overall group ownership or even the accident survival segments. Add in that the small car segment likely has a larger market share in the used car market due longevity of leaders (Civic and Corolla) vs large cars/SUVs. No doubt that older cars lack air bags, electronic aids, and structural integrity of newer models. One might let your teenager take the newer and fully insured family car out on nights when risk is higher. No doubt many more should consider safety when purchasing their vehicles.