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Statistical sources

General

  • Car crashes are the leading single cause of death for teenagers aged 15-19 in New Zealand. Between 2003 and 2008 there were 445 deaths of 15-19 year olds in vehicle crashes (37% of all deaths of 15-19 year-olds)1
     
  • For every 15-19 year old who dies in a crash, there are approximately six serious injuries and 17 moderate injuries2
     
  • The period of greatest risk for young drivers is during the first 6-12 months of driving alone3
     
  • Drivers on a Restricted licence are over four times more likely to have a crash than Learner drivers4
     
  • Male drivers aged 15-19 are 12 times more likely to crash than male drivers in the lowest risk age group of 55-59 year old drivers5
     
  • Female drivers aged 15-19 are safer than males of the same age but are still more than five times more likely to crash than female drivers aged 55-596
     
  • The highest crash fatalities are among males aged 17-20 and females aged 16-177
     
  • Each year for the past five years there have been about 1300 crashes resulting in injury or death involving teen drivers on a restricted licence8

120 hours

  • The experience young drivers gain in the Learner phase can help protect them once they start to drive alone.  If a young driver completes about 120 hours of supervised practice in a range of conditions and situations on their Learner licence, their crash rate once they start driving alone is 40% lower than if they had only completed around 50 hours9

GDLS system

Night driving and passengers (Pressure to Drive)

  • When a young driver has two or more passengers in the car with them, they’re ten times more likely to have a crash than if they were driving alone.  If those passengers are about the same age as the driver, the risk is more than fifteen times higher than if they were driving alone10
     
  • 40% of crashes involving young drivers (aged 15-24) happen when it’s dark11
     
  • Young drivers are disproportionately involved in crashes at night (particularly Friday and Saturday nights)12
     
  • Since the Graduated Licensing Systems (GDLS) was introduced in 1987, the number of teen drivers involved in fatal crashes has dropped by about 70%13

Assessing Yourself

  • Young drivers (aged 15-24) are disproportionately involved in crashes involving alcohol, speed and losing control14
     
  • If someone has been awake for 17 hours, their driving ability is as poor as a drunk driver15
     
  • The crash risk for teens who sleep less than eight hours per night is about a third greater than for teens who sleep for eight hours or more16

Reading the Conditions

  • Travelling too fast for the conditions is the most common factor in crashes involving young drivers17
     
  • According to a recent study, only 12% of crashes caused by teens making were mistakes were due to mistakes in controlling the car.  Between them, mistakes in spotting hazards and making decision accounted for 80% of the crashes18

Distractions

  • While driving, it takes the brain 2.5 seconds to switch from one task to another (like moving from reading a road sign to reacting to another car)19

Planning the journey

  • About 70% of fatal crashes involving teen drivers occur on rural roads20

Footnotes

1. Child and Youth Mortality Review Committee, Te RōpūArotake Auau Mate o te Hunga Tamariki, Taiohi. 2009. Fifth Report to the Minister of Health: Reporting mortality 2002–2008. Wellington: Child and Youth Mortality Review Committee, December 2009: 30-31 and Appendix p.31

2. MJ Trotter, DJ Russell, JD Langley et al, 2005, IPRU Factsheet: Pyramids of Injury 37, University of Otago Injury Prevention Research Unit:1-2

3. Lewis-Evans & Lukkien, 2007, ‘Crash Profile of New Zealand Novice Drivers’, Ministry of Transport, Wellington, New Zealand, page 7, fig 2, available at http://www.rsconference.com/roadsafety/detail/830

4. Ben Lewis-Evans, ‘Crash involvement during the different phases of the New Zealand Graduated Driver Licensing System (GDLS)’, Journal of Safety Research, 41 (2010) 359-365, page 362, calculated from fig 3.

5. Ministry of Transport, ‘Young Drivers Crash Factsheet 2010, Crash Statistics for the year ended 31 December 2009’, prepared in September 2010. http://www.transport.govt.nz/research/Documents/Young-driver-crash-fact-sheet-2010.pdf, hereafter MoT, ‘Young Drivers Crash Factsheet 2010’

6. MoT, ‘Young Drivers Crash Factsheet 2010’

7. Child and Youth Mortality Review Committee, Te RōpūArotake Auau Mate o te Hunga Tamariki, Taiohi. 2009. Fifth Report to the Minister of Health: Reporting mortality 2002–2008. Wellington: Child and Youth Mortality Review Committee, December 2009, p.31.

8. NZ Transport Agency, unpublished data from Crash Analysis System, showing all injury and fatal crashes of 15-19 and 20-24 year-old drivers from 2005 to 2009 by licence type and ethnicity.

9. Gregersen et al. ‘Sixteen years age limit for learner drivers in Sweden – an evaluation of safety effects,’ Accident Analysis and Prevention 32 (2000): 25-35.

10. Lam, Norton et al., ‘Passenger carriage and car crash injury: a comparison between younger and older drivers’, Accident Analysis and Prevention 35 (2003):861–867

11. NZ Transport Agency, Young Drivers (15 to 24 years old) Road Safety Report 2005 to 2009, unpublished report June 2010, page 64, figs. 6.7 and 6.8.

12. MoT, ‘Young Drivers Crash Factsheet 2010’

13. MoT, ‘Young Drivers Crash Factsheet 2010’. The number involved in injury crashes has also dropped by around 44%.  While the GDLS wasn’t the only factor, it was one of the most important in this improvement in teen driver safety.

14. MoT, ‘Young Drivers Crash Factsheet 2010’

15. Compared to a BAC of .08 (the current NZ limit).  A M Williamson, Anne-Marie Feyer, “Moderate sleep deprivation produces impairments in cognitive and motor performance equivalent to legally prescribed levels of alcohol intoxication”, Occupational & Environmental Medicine 2000;57:649-655

16. Hutchens, Senserrick et al., ‘Teen driver crash risk and associations with smoking and drowsy driving’, Accident Analysis & Prevention, Vol 40, Issue 3, May 2008: 869-876.

17. MoT, ‘Young Drivers Crash Factsheet 2010’

18. Curry, Hafetz et al, ‘Prevalence of teen driver errors leading to serious motor vehicle crashes’ in Accident Analysis & Prevention, Vol 43, Issue 4, July 2011: 1285-1290

19. Leonard Evans, Traffic Safety and the Driver, New York, 1991

20. MoT, ‘Young Drivers Crash Factsheet 2010’.