Jim Liebelt's Youth Culture Watch

Sleep-Deprived Teens Cause Crashes

The dangers of texting while driving gets more headlines and drunk driving remains one of the main causes of automobile accidents, but a large, new study helps explain why so many teens and young adults are involved in motor accidents.

They're sleepy.

Report after report shows it -- sleepy drivers cause car crashes. In the new study, researchers at The George Institute for Global Health in Sydney, Australia suggest that a long-term lack of sleep may not only cause immediate drowsiness at the wheel, but may affect a young driver’s judgment over time.

“Less sleep per night significantly increased the risk for crash for young drivers,” the researchers wrote in the American Medical Association journal JAMA Pediatrics.

Researchers studied the driving records of more than 19,000 young men and women, aged 17 to 24, who had just received their driver’s licenses. These new drivers had filled out questionnaires that included specific details about how many hours sleep they got each night in the previous month.

Then the researchers went through police records on road crashes for the next two years after the drivers were licensed.

“Those who reported sleeping six or fewer hours per night had an increased risk for crash compared with those who reported sleeping more than six hours,” they wrote. The people who slept the least were 21 percent more likely to have been involved in a crash than those who got more sleep, researchers found.

The AAA Foundation published a survey last year that found one in seven licensed drivers ages 16-24 admits they had fallen sleep at least once while driving in the past year and that 10 percent of all drivers say they’ve dozed off at the wheel.

One in six crashes with a fatality was caused by a drowsy driver, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

Source: NBC News
http://vitals.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/05/20/18379624-sleep-deprived-teens-cause-crashes-study-shows

Texting While Driving Now Leading Cause of Death for Teen Drivers

Texting while driving has become a greater hazard than drinking and driving among teenagers who openly acknowledge sending and reading text messages while behind the wheel of a moving vehicle.

The number of teens who are dying or being injured as a result of texting while driving has skyrocketed as mobile device technology has advanced. Researchers at Cohen Children's Medical Center in New Hyde Park estimate more than 3,000 annual teen deaths nationwide from texting and 300,000 injuries.

The habit now surpasses the number of teens who drink and drive -- a hazard that has been on a dramatic decline in recent years, researchers say.

An estimated 2,700 young people die each year as a result of driving under the influence of alcohol and 282,000 are treated in emergency rooms for injuries suffered in motor-vehicle crashes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Dr. Andrew Adesman and a team of Cohen investigators found that while driving between September 2010 and December 2011, among 8,947 teenagers aged 15-18 nationwide, an estimated 49 percent of boys admitted to texting while driving compared with 45 percent of girls.

Texting also increased with age. Only 24 percent of 15-year-olds tapped out messages while driving, compared with 58 percent of 18-year-olds, the data showed.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration acknowledged Wednesday that distracted driving of all kinds -- including the use of handheld cellphones -- is a growing hazard. Agency officials describe texting as among the worst of driver distractions because conversing by text simultaneously involves manual, visual and mental distractions.

Source: Newsday
http://www.newsday.com/news/nation/study-texting-while-driving-now-leading-cause-of-death-for-teen-drivers-1.5226036

43 Percent of Teens Text While Driving

According to a new study, about 43 percent high-school students taking part in a survey have said that they have texted while driving in the past month. Motor vehicle accidents are the leading cause of death among U.S. teenagers, and texting while driving is a risk factor for accidents.

"Texting while driving has become, in the words of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, a 'national epidemic,'" said Alexandra Bailin, a research assistant at Cohen Children's Medical Center of New York, principal investigator of the study.

Researchers found that both gender and age were related to texting while driving; males and students above age 18 years were more likely to text while driving when compared with females or students below age 18 years.

Also, students who texted while driving were also more likely than others to engage in other risky behaviors such as drinking, having unprotected sex and using tanning beds/lamps.

The prevalence of texting while driving among teenagers in states that prohibit it was 39 percent compared with 44 percent in states that don't have such restrictions.

"Although texting while driving was slightly less common in states that prohibit it, the reality is that millions of teens text while driving. Regrettably, our analysis suggests that state laws do not significantly reduce teen texting while driving," said Andrew Adesman, chief of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics at Cohen Children's Medical Center of New York, senior author of the study.

Source: Nature World News
http://www.natureworldnews.com/articles/1749/20130504/43-percent-teens-text-driving-study.htm

 

Survey: Nearly 1 in 4 Teens Drive While Impaired

Nearly a quarter of teens — 23% — admit to driving under the influence of alcohol, marijuana or prescription drugs used illegally at some point, a new survey finds.

What's worse, they don't view themselves as a danger: Almost 20% of those who drink and drive say it improves their driving, a view shared by 34% of those who drive under the influence of marijuana.

Those are among findings of a new survey of 1,708 11th- and 12th-graders by SADD (Students Against Destructive Decisions) and insurer Liberty Mutual.

The survey highlights the vital role of parents in keeping teens safe behind the wheel. It found that teens are more likely to drink around relatively unsupervised events, such as the Fourth of July or during the summer, than during heavily supervised activities like proms or graduations.

About twice as many teens report drinking on summer vacation than teens who admit drinking after prom or graduation, the survey found.

Cathy Chase of Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety says the percentage of teens who think they can drive safely after drinking or using marijuana "seems high. But unfortunately, it's not surprising because teens think they're invincible and they thing nothing will happen to them. Unfortunately, sometimes it takes a friend or someone in their school getting killed before the reality kind of hits them."

Source: USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/04/25/teens-drunken-driving-impaired-survey/2106325/

Most Teen-Drinking Deaths Are Not Traffic Related

When it comes to teens and alcohol, drunken driving is far from the only thing that should concern parents.

That's the message from MADD, whose new analysis of alcohol-related deaths among people 15-20 estimates that 68% of fatalities connected to underage drinking are not traffic related.

Mothers Against Drunk Driving analyzed 2010 data from the FBI, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on deaths related to underage alcohol use. It estimates that 32% of these deaths were traffic fatalities; 30% were homicides, 14% suicides, 9% alcohol poisonings and 15% other causes.

"As parents, we are definitely aware of the dangers of drinking and driving," says MADD national President Jan Withers. "I think we're not as educated about all the dangers that drinking before age 21 can be related to. And they're very, very real."

Source: USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/04/17/underage-drinking-madd-alcohol/2070405/

Fatal Teen Wrecks Puts Focus on Parents

Twenty teenagers dead in five automobile crashes in five states. All within one week.

A rash of deadly wrecks in Illinois, Texas, Ohio, Indiana and North Dakota, is a jarring reminder that vehicle crashes are still the No. 1 killer of U.S. teenagers, and that teen road deaths are rising fastest of all as the improving economy draws more traffic.

The crashes hammer home an overlooked reality of teenage driving: The risk of a teen driver dying in a crash rises sharply with teen passengers in the car. Details vary in the recent crashes, but each involved a teen driver with teen passengers. That fact highlights both the pivotal role of parenting in the treacherous maze that is learning to drive, and the need for states to do more in implementing stronger graduated driver licensing (GDL) programs that phase in privileges for novice drivers as they gain experience, some safe driving advocates say.

Source: USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/03/14/fatal-teen-wrecks-puts-focus-on-parents/1989319/

Deaths Surge Among Youngest Drivers

Deaths of teen drivers jumped 19% in the first six months of last year, more than double the percentage increase for overall traffic deaths, according to a new report.

There were 240 highway fatalities of 16- and 17-year-old drivers through the first half of 2012, up from 202 for the same period a year earlier, says the Governors Highway Safety Association, based on preliminary data from its members. Overall, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration projects that all traffic deaths were up 8% for the period.

If the numbers hold true for the second half of 2012, it would mark the second straight year of increases in deaths of teen drivers. In 2011, road deaths of 16- and 17-year-old drivers rose 3%, ending eight straight years of declines.

Allan Williams, an independent highway safety consultant who compiled the GHSA report, says the spike in teen driver fatalities likely reflects two factors: the improving economy and a leveling off of the safety benefits from graduated driver licensing (GDL) programs.

"The economy has a lot to do with highway deaths in general," says Williams, former chief scientist at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. "It has even more of an effect on young people, who have less disposable income" and tend to drive less in a downturn.

He also speculates that the safety impact of graduated driver licensing laws, in which young people gain more driving privileges as they gain experience, might have waned. "We've gotten a lot of mileage out of GDL, but a lot of states still have programs that are somewhat weak," Williams says. "We need to pay more attention to the things that we know work."

Through June 2012, deaths of 16-year-old drivers increased 24%, to 107; fatalities of 17-year-olds rose 15% to 133, for a cumulative jump of 19%.

Source: USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/02/26/death-toll-surges-among-teen-drivers/1947599/

Teens Text More While Driving Than Parents Think

Teenagers are 26 times more likely to send text messages while driving than their parents expect, based on preliminary results of a safety study by Toyota Motor Corporation and the University of Michigan.

The survey of more than 5,500 people in the U.S., consisting of drivers aged 16 to 18 and their parents, also found 69 percent of teens regularly drive with other teenagers and no adults, Toyota said in a statement.

“Teens read or send text messages once a trip 26 times more often than their parents think they do,” Toyota said in the statement. Some 54 percent of teens surveyed in the study also said they use a hand-held mobile phone while driving.

Source: Businessweek
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-11-27/teens-text-more-while-driving-than-parents-think-study

Teen Passengers and Drivers a Deadly Mix

A new study by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety find that teen driving gets riskier when teen passengers are in the car.

The study showed that 9,578 16- and 17-year old drivers were involved in fatal crashes between 2005 to 2010, and nearly 4,000 of those had at least one teen passenger.

"This much is certain: mixing teen drivers with teen passengers is simply toxic," said AAA Mid-Atlantic's John Townsend in a statement. "It is imperative that in order to avoid these types of tragedies that parents and guardians set and consistently enforce family rules that limit newly licensed teens from driving with other passengers unless they are adults serving in a supervisory capacity. Newly licensed teen drivers need to be concentrating solely on the rules of the road, not distracted by their fellow teen passengers."

Teen drivers were speeding in 30 percent of fatal crashes, but that number went up to 48 percent when three or more teen passengers were also in the car, AAA said.

Late-night driving and alcohol use rates also went up with more teen passengers.

The data adds to a May report from AAA that showed that 16- and 17-year old drivers involved in crashes were 44 percent more likely to die if they were with one passenger younger than 21, and twice as likely to die if they had two passengers under that age.

Source: Washington Examiner
http://washingtonexaminer.com/teen-passengers-and-drivers-a-deadly-mix-study-says/article/2510696#.UH1zhLSTC68

Teens Who Drive Dangerously Learn from Mom and Dad

Teens who engage in distracted and dangerous driving most likely learned their bad driving skills from their parents, according to a new study.

The majority of more than 1,700 teens surveyed admitted to making poor decisions while behind the wheel.

Nine out of 10 said they talked on their cell phone while driving and 94 percent admitted to speeding. A majority of teen respondents said their parents practiced 'do as I say, not as I do' rules when it came to driving.

"These findings highlight the need for parents to realize how their teens perceive their actions," said Dave Melton, a driving safety expert.

Meanwhile, when kids notice their parents driving poorly, they seldom say anything. Only 21 percent of teens in the study said they would ask their parents to stop driving while under the influence of alcohol.

"Your kids are always observing the decisions you make behind the wheel, and in fact have likely been doing so since they were big enough to see over the dashboard," Melton said in a summary of the survey. "You may think you only occasionally read a text at a stop light or take the odd thirty-second phone call, but kids are seeing that in a different way. Answering your phone once while driving, even if only for a few seconds, legitimizes the action for your children and they will, in turn, see that as acceptable behavior,"

Source: CNN
http://www.cnn.com/2012/09/21/us/teen-drivers/index.html