Personal Injury Law

EARLY TEENS - A DEADLY TIME FOR CAR CRASH FATALITIES

According to a study performed by The Children?s Hospital of Philadelphia, and reported in the New York Times, car-related fatalities among youth go up at age 12 and continue to increase for several years. The researchers, led by Dr. Flaura Koplin Winston, based the data after a review of more than 45,000 crashes over a 6-year period in all 50 states.

Researchers pointed to several possible reasons for the increase in youthful auto accident fatalities. One possible theory is that the children were more likely to be riding in cars with young drivers at the wheel. Failure to wear seat belts was another factor. The study indicated that passengers in cars that were driven by a 16-17 year old were at a substantial increased risk of death.

Young drivers are more easily distracted with passengers in the car. In fact, in a recent survey performed by the University of California, more than 1/3 of teenage drivers surveyed admitted they had been distracted when young passengers were in the car. The drivers surveyed cited talking, yelling, and arguing as distracting them while driving.

Full post as published by New York Injury Talk Blog on April 09, 2008 (boomark / email).