Teenage Drivers a Danger on Tennessee Roads

By Thomas Greer | October 25, 2013

The day that a teenager gets a driver’s license is one of the greatest days for the teen and one of the most stressful for the parents.  The problem is that this event marks one of the first steps towards adulthood, but teenagers still exhibit the impulsive behavior of childhood paired with a belief in their invincibility.  This leads to the tragic reality where teen drivers experience a greater rate of serious or fatal accidents.

The long and short of it is that one of the main reasons teenagers get into accidents is because they lack driving experience.  Unfortunately, the only way to gain that experience is to actually get behind the wheel of a car and drive.  However, a solution may be spending time in a car with a skilled driver, such as a parent, to gain the needed knowledge without providing the distraction of friends, technology, and food and drink.

Another big problem is that the teenage brain is still developing, leading to a desire to rebel against parental figures and a belief that teenagers are indestructible and infallible.  Despite the hardwiring of some of this behavior, there is evidence that combining more driver’s education with a graduated program of incentives, rather than simply handing over a license with no restrictions, may be a way to decrease the number of teenager driver accidents.

The main reasons why teenage drivers get into more accidents are:

  • They lack the experience to react to dangerous situations appropriately – a teenager has the greatest risk of getting into an accident within the first six months of having a license because they do not have developed skills and reaction times.
  • Teenagers ignore posted speed limits – this is especially true if there are one or more passengers in the car.  This leads to a situation where their reaction times are not as fast as more experienced drivers, yet the stopping time is increased because of the higher rate of speed.  In addition, the teenage driver is more likely to over-correct if he or she makes a mistake.
  • Negative weather conditions cause teen drivers problems – changes in the weather, including rain leading to wet roadways, fog obstructing visibility, and high winds interfering with steering and holding the road, negatively affect teen drivers far more than more experienced ones.
  • Distracted driving is a real problem for teenagers – today’s teen drivers have grown up with smart phones and texting.  Even with driver education, many teenagers do not seem to realize the risk that texting while driving poses for them and other cars on the road.  Public service campaigns are trying to change this, but texting still claims many lives each year.  In addition, teenagers are more likely to apply makeup, play with music selections, mess around with passengers in the car, drink and eat food.  These activities lead to accidents where there are serious injuries and many fatalities.
  • Teenagers emulate their friends – teens are more likely to adopt the driving habits of their friends rather than more experienced adult drivers.

Statistics show that teenagers who are sixteen (16) to nineteen (19) years of age are four times more likely to have a fatal car accident than drivers between the ages of 25 to 69 years old.  Although these are depressing numbers, they likelihood of a teenage driver getting into a serious or fatal accident has decreased over the past fifteen years.

Accidents with teenage drivers may lead to severe injuries or worse.  If you have been injured in a collision with a teenager or any other driver, the Tennessee auto accident law firm of Bailey & Greer will work with you to get the damages award that you need to pay your medical bills and compensate you for your pain and suffering.  Please call us at 901-680-9777 to schedule a case evaluation so that we can craft an effective legal strategy.

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