DETROIT – AAA has launched its "National Teen Driver Safety Week" to raise awareness about a dangerous trend for teen drivers.
Crash numbers have dropped over the past 20 years, but teens continue to have the highest crash rate of any age group in the country, according to AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety.
A number of factors contribute to this, but distractions play a heavier role than anything.
The study found that distraction was a factor in nearly 6 out of 10 moderate-to-severe teen crashes (58 percent), which is four times as many as official estimates based on police reports (14 percent).
The most common forms of distraction leading up to a crash by a teen driver include:
Interacting with one or more passengers: 15 percent of crashes
- Cell phone use: 12 percent of crashes
- Looking at something in the vehicle: 10 percent of crashes
- Looking at something outside the vehicle: 9 percent of crashes
- Singing/moving to music: 8 percent of crashes
- Grooming: 6 percent of crashes
- Reaching for an object: 6 percent of crashes
"Teen Driver Safety Week is a great time to remind everyone about the risks teenagers face when they are learning to drive," said Susan Hiltz, Public Affairs Director of AAA Michigan. "Parents can play a critical role in helping prevent distracted driving and coaching their teens to be safe drivers."
Before parents begin practice driving with teens, AAA encourages parents to help create a parent-teen driving agreement that includes strict ground rules related to distraction.
This tool and many other resources are available for both parents and teens at TeenDriving.AAA.com.?