Teen Driver Safety Week Reminds Us To Prioritize Cautious Driving

We are rapidly making our way through the month of October, faster than some of us would like to realize, but I digress.  A lot of attention is on Halloween next weekend, which it should be, but let’s not miss an important theme for this week.  

It’s Teen Driver Safety Week.

The purpose of this week is to help remind teens to be more cautious and aware behind the wheel, and for adults, a reminder that there’s always an influx of new, inexperienced drivers on the roads around us. 

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The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has an arm called Traffic Safety Marketing. Their main purpose is to bring awareness to situations they’ve seen in the past and promote safety on the roads we travel on each day. 

Here are a few facts they have provided us with for this week’s theme. 

• The leading cause of deaths in young people aged 15-18 is traffic accidents. 

• In 2023, there were 2,611 people killed in crashes that involved teens, and of that number, 822 were teen drivers. 

• 604 of the 2,611 were teens that were passengers of teenage drivers 

• Also in 2023, 87,074 teen drivers were injured in vehicles crashes 

Distracted driving remains a leading cause of accidents involving teen drivers, but there’s also a history of drinking and driving, driving under the influence of drugs, along with speeding, and driving when they’re too sleepy as well. 

Another contributing factor in injuries and deaths to teen drivers and passengers is not wearing their seatbelts. If you know a teen driver, it never hurts to pass along a friendly reminder of the things they need to be the safest they can be on the roads.