National Teen Driver Safety Week

National Teen Driver Safety Week was established by Congress in 2007 to focus attention on the nation’s epidemic of teen car crashes and to find solutions.

There are many well-known factors that raise a teen driver’s risk of getting into a serious or even fatal crash: Speeding, drinking, talking or texting on a cell phone and driving at night are some of the most important. Distracted and impaired driving, whether with a cell phone, loud passengers and/or mixing alcohol with driving, makes car crashes the leading killer among this age group.

This year more than 5,000 teens will likely die on America’s roads — that’s 10 teens between the ages of 16 to 19 every day. There is a new focus this year on another dangerous factor that recent research shows few teens recognize: peer passengers.

Just one teen passenger doubles the risk a teen driver will get into a fatal crash; three or more passengers will quadruple the risk. Only 10 percent of teens correctly view passengers as potentially hazardous. However, many more do acknowledge that certain passenger behaviors increase risk, such as “acting wild” (65 percent) or encouraging the driver to speed (62 percent).

According to the 2011 Montana Youth Risk Behavior Survey, the percentage of Montana high school students who used a cell phone while driving was 53 percent during the last month; 50 percent texted while driving and almost 60 percent of teens did not wear a seat belt while riding as a passenger in a car.

Most teen passengers who die in crashes are riding with a teen driver. Studies show:

“These key factors are the greatest predictors of death for older children and teen passengers:

1. Not using restraints (seat belts)

2. Riding on roads with posted speed limits of 45 m.p.h. or above

3. Riding with a driver age 16 or younger.”

If you are a parent of a teen driver, please take this opportunity to talk to your teen about these important ways to stay safe while driving: Stay focused and pay attention at all times; do not drive if you are tired; if you need to use your cell phone while driving, pull off the traveled roadway and stop in a safe place before using your phone; and have your passenger change the radio station or CD while you focus on the road.