The new AAA Foundation study shows that, nationwide, young novice drivers comprise slightly more than one-third of all the fatalities in crashes in which they are involved. The remaining two-thirds of those killed are other vehicle users and pedestrians.

In California, according to the AAA Foundation analysis, 1,976 lives were lost in crashes involving young novice drivers from 1995–2004; this included 546 drivers 15–17 years old (28 percent), 700 passengers (35.4 percent), 496 occupants of vehicles operated by drivers at least 18 years of age (25 percent), and 233 non-motorists (12 percent).

"It's clear from this analysis that young drivers' lack of experience on the road is a major traffic safety issue," said the Auto Club's Driving School Manager Kathy Downing.

The AAA Foundation analysis shows that from 1995 through 2004 crashes involving 15-, 16-, and 17-year-old drivers claimed the lives of 30,917 people nationwide, of which only 11,177 (36.2 percent) were the teen drivers themselves. The remaining 19,740 (63.6 percent) included 9,847 passengers of the teen drivers, 7,477 occupants of other vehicles operated by drivers at least 18 years of age, 2,323 non-motorists.

"The tragedy of teen driver crashes goes well beyond the teen driver and their teen passengers," said Downing. "Teens too often put others at risk and when crashes involve family members — younger brothers or sisters — the teen and the entire family can suffer emotional trauma that will last a lifetime," she said. "It's also important to remember that while these statistics represent fatalities, there are many crashes that don't result in death, but do result in severe physical or mental injury or trauma to teen motorists and others."

Teen drivers also tend to be disproportionately at fault for the crashes in which they are involved. An Auto Club analysis of California data for 1995–2004 shows that teens 15–17 years of age were at fault in 68 percent of their fatal crashes. "This is well above what we'd expect given that when two drivers are involved in a crash, as is typical, there's a 50-50 chance of one of them being at fault. It's also another indication why it's so important for parents to limit teens from being exposed to dangerous driving conditions and also to manage their driving experience," said Steven Bloch, Ph.D., the Auto Club's senior research associate who analyzed the California teen crash data.

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