The leading cause of death among young people between 15 and 20 years of age was a motor vehicle crash and, according to statistics, they are involved in almost 15% of fatal crashes. This is why it is mandatory and urgent for parents to understand why statistics are so high.
The statistics results between 2013 and 2016 reveal that a large group of young drivers aging between 16 and 25 was involved in fatal and serious driving accidents, more than half of the young drivers involved in these accidents were male drivers. Almost half of the drivers involved in these accidents were driving on country roads.
Other important facts to take into account are that 10% of these drivers were not wearing a seat belt, and that almost half the accidents took place during weekends. 30% of drivers that died in accidents were drunk, and that 20% of all accidents took place between 4 and 5 in the afternoon, between 6 and 8 in the afternoon and between midnight and 1 in the morning.
Though most young drivers prefer to drive at night, and at weekends it is important to have enough experience to do this as night driving is more difficult than daytime driving, and there is much more traffic during weekends and more drunk drivers on the road.
Some of the main reasons why these young drivers have a predisposition to get involved and/or suffer road crashes are:
- Constant speeding.
- Driving old cars.
- Lack of experience under real driving circumstances.
- Peer pressure.
- Risk-taking attitude when driving.