In case you missed it, last week the Governors Highway Safety Association released a study prepared for them by Dr. Allan Williams entitled “Teenage Driver Fatalities by State”.
According to the study, 16 and 17 year old drivers deaths increased by 11% (16% for 16 year olds and 7% for 17 year olds) in the first 6 months of 2011 when compared to the first 6 months of 2010.
I met Dr. Allan Williams a few decades ago (at the Watergate Building in Washington, D.C. at the headquarters for the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety) and I have communicated with him in recent years. He’s a first rate researcher with some common sense.
Although the number of deaths may seem low (although it’s difficult for me to consider any number “low”), keep in mind that this study does not include the deaths of teens as passengers.
What this study fails to adequately address is the fact that there is a way to train a new teen driver in the techniques of collision-free driving and that parents, like you, with the right tools (Driver Ed in a Box®), can make a difference. (Granted, that was not the purpose of this study.)
Here’s a link that can take you to the actual study, in case you’d like to get all the facts (Texas does not look good – in fact, it leads the nation in teenage driver deaths!).