Prime Time Driving
Serving Bucks and Montgomery counties
Driving Statistics
  • Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for teenagers.
  • 16 year-olds have higher crash rates than drivers of any other age.
  • 16-year-olds are three times more likely to die in a motor vehicle crash than the average of all drivers.
  • 3,490 drivers age 15-20 died in car crashes in 2006, up slightly from 2005.
  • Drivers age 15-20 accounted for 12.9 percent of all the drivers involved in fatal crashes and 16 percent of all the drivers involved in police-reported crashes in 2006.
  • The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimates the economic impact of auto accidents involving 15-20 year old drivers is over $40 billion.
  • Graduated drivers license programs appear to be making a difference. Fatal crashes involving 15- to 20-year olds in 2005 were down 6.5 percent from 7,979 in 1995, to the lowest level in ten years.
  • Fewer 16-year-olds are driving. In 2006 only 30 percent of 16-year-olds had their driver's licenses compared to 40% in 1998 according to the Federal Highway Administration.
  • According to a 2005 survey of 1,000 people ages 15 and 17, conducted by the Allstate Foundation
    • More than half (56 percent) of young drivers use cell phones while driving,
    • 69 percent said that they speed to keep up with traffic
    • 64 percent said they speed to go through a yellow light.
    • 47 percent said that passengers sometimes distract them.
    • Nearly half said they believed that most crashes involving teens result from drunk driving.
  • 31 percent of teen drivers killed in 2006 had been drinking, according to NHTSA. 25 percent had a blood alcohol concentration of .08 or higher.
  • Statistics show that 16 and 17-year-old driver death rates increase with each additional passenger (IIHS).