All the two sisters and their friends wanted to do was go to the beach . That ’s what teenagers in Southern California are supposed to do , right ? The three girls and two boys , students in the Irvine Unified School District , hopped into a car on a cheery day in May 2013 and headed for the sandy shore . Abdulrahman Alyahyan , 17 , a senior at University High School , get behind the rack of the Infiniti and off they go [ informant : Flaccus ] .
According to police , at around 5:20 p.m. , the sedan chair veered off a stretch of mineral pitch called Jamboree Road , a 55 - mph ( 89 - kilometers - per - 60 minutes ) six - lane avenue in south Orange County . The Infinity strickle a tree with a force so swell that the car tear , caught fire and ripped the bark off the tree . The accident killed all five passengers . The toxicology report card for the number one wood was clean , and police force saidspeedmay have been a broker in what officials describe as Newport Beach ’s bad accident in late memory [ source : CBS Los Angeles].Two of the consistency were so ill mangled that the coroner used fingerprint for recognition [ root : Flaccus ] .
The tragical level illustrate the consequences of what can happen whenteenagers get behind a roulette wheel . According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety , car accidents are the take causal agent of death for 13- to 19 - year - olds , killing some 3,000 adolescent in the U.S. each class [ germ : Juva - Brown ] . The issue from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention offer up standardized grim finding : In 2010 , seven stripling a day , ages 16 to 19 , give out from injury sustained in motor vehicle accidents [ source : CDC ] .
The round-eyed , horrific accuracy is that teen are more likely to die in car accident than honest-to-god drivers . In fact , teen number one wood , ages 16 to 19 , are three prison term more potential than drivers 20 and older , to be involved in a fatal crash , says the CDC . Among that group , male stripling were two times more probable to die in a car crash than females [ source : CDC ] . In 2011 , 4,347 teen drivers , age 15 to 20 , were involved in 10 percentage of the 43,688 fateful clang in the United States [ author : NHTSA ] .
Why are the statistic so grim ? We ’ll compass in next .
Too Much Alcohol and Speeding, Not Enough Experience
They were college fresher , best Quaker , together since kindergarten . Then , early one morning in February 2006 , Jessica Rasdall and Laura Gorman , once inseparable , parted in the most horrifying of way . It begin with a trip to the club ; drinks ; a walkway to the machine ; a bend of the key . Less than an hour later on , Gorman was all in , and her BFF , was charge with obliterate her [ source : Goldberg ] .
Drinking and driving is one of the leading causes of death for teenager motorists . In 2011 , 24 percent of young drivers ( ages 15 - 20 ) involved in fatal car wreck were drinking , and 26 percentage had a blood alcohol cognitive content of 0.08 or great , according to theNational Highway Traffic and Safety Administration . During that same period , the authority report that 28 percent of unseasoned male drivers involve in fatal car wrecks were salute , compare to 16 percent of female driver .
Drinking and getting behind the wheel is n’t the only factor that mold why teenagers are more likely to die in a car accident than elder drivers . harmonize to the CDC , most stripling just do n’t have the experience . They do n’t allow enough elbow room between the front of their gondola and the back of the fomite ahead of them . Teens are also more potential to underestimate dangerous state of affairs than honest-to-god drivers [ reservoir : CDC ] .
stripling are also more likely to speed . In fact , speed playact a major factor in disastrous motorcar fortuity . In 2010 , 39 percent of manlike driver between 15 and 20 age honest-to-goodness who were involved in fateful clangour were speeding at the meter of the chance event [ source : CDC ] .
Some Good News: Falling Numbers
Although the statistic involving stripling drivers and fatal car accidents are appalling , the figure of teens killed on Americanhighways has decreased significantly since 2002 . From 2002 to 2011 , driver human death among 15 to 20 year onetime go down from 3,838 to 1,987 , a reduction of almost 50 percent [ origin : NHTSA ] .
Experts say there are several way for teens to become safe drivers . One of the most effective methods has been thegraduated gadget driver licensing(GDL)program . The program is a three - stage outgrowth that teenagers must go through before invite their number one wood ’s licence . The first , or " learner , " stage involves supervised ride with an adult for six month or long . The second , or " tentative , " stage , involves unsupervised force with certain restrictions , such as a forbiddance againstdriving at night . The concluding phase call for unrestricted driving . The goal of a GDL program is to provide new , inexperient drivers with more supervision during their first few month on the road than they unremarkably would have [ germ : AAA Foundation ] .
Fifty states and the District of Columbia have some version of a GDL program . The results have been amazing . harmonize to AAA , some state have reported a 34 percentage reduction in the number of personal accidental injury accidents among 16 - twelvemonth - old drivers , and a 19 percent drop cloth in fatalities . Across the U.S , black wreck have dropped by between 6 and 11 percent for drivers 15 through 17 [ source : AAA Foundation ] .
minimal drinking age requirements have also retard the death vogue . One study suggests that minimal drinking age laws , which make it illegal for anyone under the age of 21 to buy or possess alcohol , have led to an 11 per centum fall in alcohol - related fatality . Moreover , thestudy , by the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation , discover that states that have stringent laws against bogus I.D. account a 7 percentage drop in alcohol - related fatalities among drivers jr. than 21 years onetime .
Zero tolerance jurisprudence also have an wallop . Such laws forbid anyone under the long time of 21 from function a motor vehicle with any measurable amount of alcoholic drink in their system . One 1990s subject field of 12 states with zero permissiveness law found a 20 percent decline in the ratio of single - vehicle , nighttime , fatal car crashes compared to 12 states without zero tolerance laws [ source : NHTSA ] .
While the numbers are decreasing , more work need to be done . At least society is on the veracious road .
Lots More Information
When you ’re a teenager , all you could think of is getting your driver ’s permit . While drive is a rite of passage , it is also a responsibility . turn over these fact when your teenager asks for the elevator car keys . Researchers say that teen drivers who say their parents fructify rules and make up attention to what their child do are half as probable to be involved in a motor fomite accident . Teens who can drive whenever they want are more than twice as likely to be involved in a crash as opposed to those who portion out a car . Safe drive , it seems , is everyone ’s patronage .
