A recent study conducted by Insurance Institute for Highway Safety researchers has revealed that 48 percent of drivers aged 15 to 17 who died in car crashes from 2008 to 2012 were driving cars that were at least 11 years old. The study also found that teens overwhelmingly tended to drive older and smaller vehicles as a demographic group, in contrast to middle-aged drivers.
This study is the basis of a recent article by Anne T. McCartt and Eric R. Teoh, "Type, size and age of vehicles driven by teenage drivers killed in crashes during 2008–2012" in Injury Prevention, a peer review journal. The authors mined the data contained in the federal government's Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) from 2008 to 2012, looking for trends in accident statistics involving teens. A total of 2,420 teens were part of the data group examined by the report, which also included statistics on 18,975 drivers aged 35 to 50.
Among the statistics uncovered by the study was the fact that 29 percent of fatally injured teenagers were operating small cars, 35 percent were driving a midsize car, and the remaining groups of 17 percent each were driving pickups and SUVs. The study noted that 82 percent were driving cars that were at least 6 years old, while 34 percent were driving cars that were 6 to 10 years old. Perhaps the most surprising statistic is that 17 percent of the cars involved in fatal crashes -- nearly a fifth -- were 16 years old or older.
Many teens either drive Grandma's hand-me-down or purchase a much older vehicle, either of which will inevitably offer less advanced safety systems than those found in new cars. One of the crucial takeaways highlighted by the study was the fact that many teenagers' cars lacked electronic stability control systems and side airbags, systems that were likely to increase survivability. The researchers noted that just 3 percent of cars driven by teenagers included in the data set had electronic stability control as a standard feature and another 8 percent had it as an optional feature, compared to 7 percent as a standard feature in middle-aged drivers' cars.
The researchers' main conclusions reiterate the IIHS position that larger cars tend to protect their drivers more than smaller vehicles. And despite home economics playing a decisive role in the choice of vehicles for teens -- if it can be called a choice -- the IIHS does have a list of affordable used cars that meet safety criteria for teen drivers, ranging in price from $5,000 to $20,000.
With parents often being the decisionmakers when it comes to cars for their children, the IIHS list offers buying guidelines that allow parents to buy the most safety for their money. None of the vehicles on the list are small cars, and vehicles with stability control systems are strongly urged.