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AAA Dashcam of Teen Crashes from Distracted Driving

We wouldn’t send our teens skydiving without a parachute. We wouldn’t allow our teens to walk onto a field without a helmet. And we would not ask them to run out and play during a lightning storm. Yet, all of these actions combined would not come close to the number of teens killed each year in auto accidents.

So why do we allow them to get behind the wheel of a 3,500 pound vehicle and pick up their cell phone, or drive unsupervised with their friends? Automobile accidents are the leading cause of deaths among drivers ages 16-19, accounting for almost 1 million accidents in the year 2013 alone.

This prompted the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety to analyze more than 1,700 DriveCam in-vehicle video camera systems of teenage drivers ages 16-19. These teens agreed to participate in a study by allowing their driving to be captured by video. The group found that 58% of the accidents involved were do to distracted driving, with:

36% of those had passengers in the vehicle
- 85% of those passengers were also ages 16-19
12% of those were due to cell phones.
10% were looking at something in the vehicle
9% were looking at something outside the vehicle
8% were singing/listening to music
6% were grooming
6% were reaching for an object

When analyzing the videos, 6 seconds prior to the crash was viewed. One of the scariest things was that those who were looking at their cell phone spent on average 4.1 seconds out of the 6 seconds looking away before the crash.

Below is an infograph breaking down teen auto accidents.

We need to save our children. There are countless stories of those who are killed in auto accidents each year, and it’s a scary number. We need to teach our teens the importance of not getting distracted while driving just as much as we teach them about how to drive. To them it may seem innocent, or they don’t understand the true dangers of being behind the wheel of a vehicle.

Let’s take action:

1. Don’t let your teen drive with friends until they have gained enough driving experience.
2. Install an app on their phone that doesn’t allow texting while driving. Verizon Wireless has a list of apps that block texting while driving.

We may never be able to completely prevent our children from being hurt, but hopefully by educating the parents as well as the children on the dangers of distracted driving, we can help prevent as many crashes as possible.