• Allan F Williams, Bina Ali, and Ruth A Shults.
• Allan F. Williams LLC, Bethesda, Maryland, USA.
• Traffic Inj Prev. 2010 Dec 1;11(6):567-72.

ObjectiveWe determined the proportion of all fatal crashes of 16- and 17-year-old drivers that involved the presence of teenage passengers from 2004 to 2008.MethodsData on fatal crashes of 16- and 17-year-old drivers were derived from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System for the years 2004-2008.ResultsFor both 16- and 17-year-old drivers, in each of the 5 years examined, at least 39 percent of all their fatal crash events involved the presence of 13- to 19-year-old passengers and no one younger or older. For 16- to 17-year-olds combined, the proportion of crashes involving drivers with teen passengers changed little from 2004 (43%) to 2008 (41%), despite the growth in the number of states with passenger restrictions from 23 to 37 during this period.ConclusionA high proportion of teen crashes involve the presence of other teens as passengers at the time of the crash. There is a need to find effective ways to reduce these crashes.

17 keywords...

hide…