The Fatal Factors in Teen Driving

According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), there is an especially high risk of motor vehicle crashes for teen drivers have teenage passengers. This risk increases with the number of teen passengers.

It should have been a wonderful, magical night at the prom. Instead, for many other students, it was a night to remember.

For Taft High School cheerleader, Jennifer Perla, getting in an SUV driven by an 18-year old with her friends would prove to be a dangerous risk but it was the act of not wearing a seat belt that proved to be fatal.

The 2003 Chevrolet SUV overturned on the freeway in downtown Los Angeles when the driver lost control. Perla died after being thrown out of the vehicle and seven other passengers sustained injuries. Perla and her friends were on their way to the prom.

There are a number of factors that can be pinpointed as the cause for the teen’s tragic death and the car crash. Foremost of which is Jennifer Perla’s fatal mistake of not using a seatbelt.

Teens have the lowest rate of seat belt use. The CDC reported that in 2005, 10 percent of high school students reported they rarely or never wear seat belts when riding with someone else. A national survey of seat belt use among high school students revealed that:

• Male high school students (12.5%) were more likely than female students (7.8%) to rarely or never wear seat belts.


• In 2005, three out of four teen drivers killed in motor vehicle crashes after drinking and driving were not wearing a seat belt.

Despite massive efforts on the part of the government to enforce and create awareness of seatbelt laws, teenagers still raise the highest number of fatalities for not wearing a seat belt.

Perhaps it’s all about maturity but is the burden of taking two seconds to buckle one’s seat belt too much for younger people?

Another fact that may have led to the accident is driving on the freeway. According to experts, since teen drivers have less experience, driving on highways can be tricky. Handling a car at higher speeds requires additional practice.

Also, driver distraction accounts for a high body count for car crashes. Nearly 80 percent of crashes and 65 percent of near-crashes involved some form of driver inattention within three seconds before the event. Aside from cell phone use, peers and friends are definitely a distracting and potentially fatal presence for less experienced teen drivers.

As previously mentioned, teen drivers driving around with peers is a high risk for motor vehicle crashes. With seven other people in the SUV, one of them not wearing a seat belt and speeding along a highway—these are fatal factors.

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