Fall 2011 | Vol. 13 | No. 3
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New Studies Shed Light on Teen Driving Behavior
Three recent reports are providing important insight on teen driving behavior. The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety (AAA Foundation) released one report on teens transitioning to unsupervised driving and a second on the risk and causes of crashes associated with the initial period of driving. In addition, State Farm® published a study on the alarming prevalence of parents who text or talk on the phone, even while coaching their teens how to drive. All three reports were released in conjunction with National Teen Driver Safety Week, Oct. 16-22.
The first AAA Foundation study
– Measuring Changes in Teenage
Driver Crash Characteristics
During the Early Months
of Driving 
[1.1 MB, 53 pgs.] – analyzed the crash
data associated with new drivers in
North Carolina. This data revealed
that teens have an approximately 50
percent greater chance of a crash
during their first month of independent
driving than after a full year of
experience. The risk jumps to nearly
twice the level when compared with
two full years of experience.
The most common causes of new teen driver crashes were failure to reduce speed, inattention, and failure to yield. Some types of crashes, such as those involving left-hand turns, occurred more frequently during the first few months of driving but declined as drivers became more experienced.
The AAA Foundation’s Transition to
Unsupervised Driving [757 KB, 25 pgs.] study used
in-vehicle cameras to capture novice
drivers’ behaviors both as they were
learning to drive with their parents
and during their first six months of
unsupervised driving. Researchers
discovered that supervised driving
consisted mostly of familiar trips
under rather easy driving conditions.
According to the AAA Foundation,
this demonstrates the need for
more practice on unfamiliar roads in
different weather conditions. When
parents were no longer in the car,
cameras captured many near crashes
due to inexperience as well as
some cases of texting while driving,
running red lights, and other distracting
and dangerous behaviors.
A new State Farm® survey questioned parents and teen drivers about their distracted driving behavior. Results showed that most parents – even those helping their teens learn to drive – confess to being distracted by cellphones or other electronics themselves while driving. In fact, 53% of parents admitted being distracted by such devices at least once while teaching their teens to drive. Interestingly, 61 percent of teens reported that their parents were distracted while teaching them to drive. More teens (54 percent) also reported that they had seen their parents use a cellphone while driving “sometimes, often, or all the time”; only 43% of parents admitted the same behavior.
For more information on the
AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety reports, visit www.aaafoundation.org/pdf/2011TeenSafeDriverWeekPR.pdf [315 KB, 2 pgs.].