Citation

Mastromatto T, Quinones T, Lan B, Srinivasan R, Lococo KH, Watson CE, Staplin LK. U.S. DOT National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Washington, D.C.: US DOT National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 2022.

Copyright

(Copyright 2022, U.S. DOT National Highway Traffic Safety Administration)

The full document is available online.

Abstract

This report documents the results of analyses using data from young drivers (16 to 20 years old) from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) from 2013 to 2017 and the second Strategic Highway Research Program’s Naturalistic Driving Study (SHRP2 NDS). The research team conducted quasi-induced exposure analyses by calculating crash involvement ratios (CIRs) at each young driver age using multi-vehicle crashes each with only one driver with a contributing factor. CIRs were examined with respect to risk factors relevant to graduated driver licensing (GDL) and driver education (DE). For FARS data, CIR values for young drivers were compared to a 35- year-old reference group using logistic regression. The SHRP2 NDS data also permitted a comparison of trends between age and amount of driving experience in 6-month increments for a similar range of variables. Although young driver risk appeared to decline with increasing age, young drivers of all ages (i.e., 16 to 20) were at higher risk than 35-year-olds for most factors. Some situations were particularly risky for young drivers relative to 35- year-old drivers and relative to other kinds of situations. The results from this study may be useful for developing DE content or supervised driving practices targeted at the riskiest situations for young drivers, given that many young drivers are novices. Additional descriptive analyses are available in the Supplementary Report.

young driver, teen driver, novice driver, graduated driver licensing, GDL, driver education, quasi-induced exposure, safety, crash risk, SHRP2