AAA: Distracted driving a cause in majority of teen crashes

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 14 percent of all crashes involve driver distraction, with 7 percent of those (1 percent of all crashes) involving distraction related to cell phone use.
But if a new study is to be believed, those numbers may be quite different in the realm of young drivers.
In a recent study, AAA observed in-car video from 1,691 vehicles of teenage drivers (ages 16-19) and found that 58 percent of the crashes overall saw the driver inattentive or engaged in some other non-driving-related activity.
In part it was studies like AAA’s that led to Louisiana making a push, and succeeding in getting the Graduated Driver Licensing law passed.
“We’ve been following the numbers here for the last couple of years,” said Master Trooper Brooks David with Louisiana State Police Troop I.
“We look at data from crashes and we started realizing that passengers inside the vehicle with drivers under the age 18 were becoming the number one problem for teenagers. That’s because the drivers are not paying attention to the roadway and what’s going on; they’re laughing and joking inside the vehicle or doing whatever and not paying attention to what’s going on.”
Under the law, driving permits are awarded to 15-year-olds, intermediate driving licenses are awarded to 16-year-olds and regular licenses to 17-year-olds.
Key findings from the AAA study included the following:
• The driver was found to have been driving too fast for conditions in 79 percent of single-vehicle crashes; following too closely in 36 percent of rear-end crashes, and failed to yield to another vehicle in 43 percent of angle crashes.
• The driver was inattentive or engaged in some other non-driving-related activity in 58 percent of crashes overall (44 percent of loss-of-control crashes, 89 percent of road-departure crashes, 76 percent of rear-end crashes, and 51 percent of angle crashes).
• The most frequent potentially-distracting behaviors were conversing or otherwise interacting with passengers and cell phone use.
- Passengers were present in 36 percent of all crashes — 84 percent of passengers were estimated to be ages 16-19; fewer than 5 percent were parents or other adults; driver was conversing or otherwise interacting with passenger in 15 percent of crashes.
- The driver was engaged in cell phone use in 12 percent of crashes — visibly using a cell phone in 8 percent of all crashes; cell phone use appeared likely (driver looking at or manipulating something out of view of the camera) in an additional 4 percent.
- Cell phone use varied significantly by crash type: Visible in 21 percent of road-departure crashes, not visible but likely in additional 13 percent; visible in 10 percent of rear-end crashes, not visible but likely in additional 8 percent; least prevalent in single-vehicle loss-of-control crashes (most of these involved adverse weather or surface conditions).
- Drivers operating or looking at cell phones looked away from the forward roadway excessively — spent an average of 4.1 seconds out of final 6 seconds before the crash looking away.
- The driver exhibited no reaction at all before impact in over half of rear-end crashes involving cell phone use.
• Decision errors such as failing to yield right of way, running stop signs and driving too fast, were involved in 66 percent of crashes.
For David and state troopers, the push has been to make sure less distracted drivers are taking the roads, but seat belts also continue to be a big push.
“Two of the sad things was the girl from Iota that died and the girl from Crowley that died,” he said. “It seems to hit home for a little while then people forget and move on, ... but we never forget, the families never forget.”
According to AAA, in 2013, 963,000 teenage drivers — ages 16-19 — were involved in police-reported motor vehicle crashes, resulting in 383,000 injuries and 2,865 deaths.
Researchers at the University of Iowa examined data from teen driver crashes captured on the Ltyx DriveCam in-vehicle video camera system. Most of the teens that participated lived in the Midwest region. The study factored crashes between August 2007 and July 2013.
To read the full report of the study, visit https://www.aaafoundation.org/sites/default/files/2015TeenCrashCausation....