The contribution of fatal crashes involving teens transporting teens.
OBJECTIVE
We determined the proportion of all fatal crashes of 16- and 17-year-old drivers that involved the presence of teenage passengers from 2004 to 2008.


METHODS
Data on fatal crashes of 16- and 17-year-old drivers were derived from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System for the years 2004-2008.


RESULTS
For both 16- and 17-year-old drivers, in each of the 5 years examined, at least 39 percent of all their fatal crash events involved the presence of 13- to 19-year-old passengers and no one younger or older. For 16- to 17-year-olds combined, the proportion of crashes involving drivers with teen passengers changed little from 2004 (43%) to 2008 (41%), despite the growth in the number of states with passenger restrictions from 23 to 37 during this period.


CONCLUSIONS
A high proportion of teen crashes involve the presence of other teens as passengers at the time of the crash. There is a need to find effective ways to reduce these crashes.
Allan F. Williams LLC, Bethesda, Maryland, USA.
Allan F
AF
Williams
Bina
B
Ali
Ruth A
RA
Shults
D000063:Accidents, Traffic / Q000401:mortality* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data / Q000639:trends; D000293:Adolescent; D001334:Automobile Driving / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D016208:Databases, Factual; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D055815:Young Adult