Teen Drivers: It’s All About the Numbers

Sadly, the numbers don’t lie.  Teenagers account for only 1/10^th of the entire population of the United States, but slightly more than 1/8^th of persons killed in motor vehicle related incidents.  If your high school math is a bit fuzzy, let’s put that into real numbers:  More than 400,000 teenagers are injured in a car accident every year; here’s some more perspective – Giants stadium holds 80,000 people, so visualize five times that number and you’ve got the number of teenagers injured.  Of that, 4,500 teens (of driving age) die each year – that’s more than a dozen a day.

Male drivers in their teen years are more likely than their feminine counterpart to get into an accident in the first place – 1½ times more, in fact.  Males also don’t like to wear their seatbelts; according to the statistics, 12.5% of all teenage males (not necessarily drivers) don’t wear a seat belt compared to 7.8% of female teens.  And the presence of other teens in the car tends to exacerbate reckless behavior.

Makes you want to lock your teenager up until he or she’s well into their 20’s, doesn’t it?  Alas, that’s illegal in most states.  You’ll have to come up with another plan to keep your teenage drivers alive and to ensure you have the best car insurance for teenagers .  It won’t be easy, but it will be worth it.