Comprehensive research undertaken by the AAA and the University of Iowa has uncovered the degree to which driver distraction plays a role in teen car crashes. According to the findings published in their report, ‘Using Naturalistic Driving Data to Assess the Prevalence of Environmental Factors and Driver Behaviors in Teen Driver Crashes’, 58% of teen accidents were due to the driver being distracted[1]. The two most prevalent forms of distraction were ‘attending to passengers’ (responsible for 15% of crashes) and ‘cell phone use’ (12%). Further to this, the AAA’s research shows that 89% of road departures and 76% of rear-end crashes are due to driver distraction.

This data has been collected with the use of in-vehicle event recorders that were installed in nearly 1,700 cars. Triggered by hard breaking, fast cornering or an impact that exceeds a certain g-force, the in vehicle event recorders film the 12 seconds before and after the crash, providing vital information about driver behaviour seconds before the crash.

Peter Kissinger, President and CEO of the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety said “Access to crash videos has allowed us to better understand the moments leading up to a vehicle impact in a way that was previously impossible. The in-depth analysis provides indisputable evidence that teen drivers are distracted in a much greater percentage of crashes than we previously realized.”

The findings of the study have led the AAA to call for a revision of U.S. state law, calling for the prohibition of cell phone use by teen drivers and restricting passengers to one non-family member for the first six months of driving.

These figures shed an important light on an area of driver safety hitherto poorly understood and greatly underestimated. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), only 14% of driver crashes are caused by driver distraction. Given the lack of knowledge surrounding the extent to which distraction causes teen car crashes, the AAA’s research provides a valuable insight into the nature of teen driving crashes.

The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety was founded in 1947 by the AAA with the mission to identify traffic safety problems, foster research that seeks solutions and disseminate information and educational materials.