According to a study by The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and State Farm Insurance Companies, teenage drivers commit three common errors behind the wheel that are most likely to lead to auto accidents.
Teen drivers are involved in auto accidents at a rate four times that of adults because they do not scan their surroundings for potential hazards, drive too fast for the current road conditions, and become distracted easily be something inside the car itself.
In an analysis of more than 800 auto accidents involving teenaged drivers, researchers found that 75 percent of the incidents were due to a critical error on the part of the teen driver.
Twenty-one percent of the accidents were attributed to a failure to scan the surrounds, another 21 percent were caused by driving at an excessive rate of speed in relation to road conditions, and 20 percent resulted from driver distraction.
Allison Curry, Ph.D., the lead author of the study, which was published in the journal Accident Analysis and Prevention said, “This study helps dispel the myth that most teen crashes are due to aggressive driving or thrill-seeking. Promoting safe driving skills is as important as preventing problem behaviors.”
Study co-author Dennis Durbin, MD, MSCE said, "Laws and policies that address distractions by limiting the number of peer passengers and prohibiting cell phone use among novice drivers will help reduce crash rates, but will only address part of the problem. Many crashes will still occur due to the inability of teen drivers to detect and respond to a hazard in time. Formal teen driver training and parent-teen practice drives should focus on building scanning and hazard awareness skills."
