Joseph Rose, author of the always excellent “pdxcommute” column at The Oregonian/OregonLive, reports some important and chilling facts about the heightened risks faced by teen drivers and their friends and loved ones:
[R]esearch has repeatedly shown teen drivers — especially boys — take more risks when their friends are in the passenger seats.
Last year, a AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety study found that a teen driver’s risk of death per mile increases by 44 percent with one teen passenger in the car and quadruples with three or more teen passengers.
Bruce G. Simons-Morton, a traffic-safety researcher with the National Institutes of Health, said boys are more likely to speed, drive aggressively and run red lights when they’re driving with other boys. “It’s hard for a parent to understand when teens get together on their own, how they can be so different,” said Simons-Morton, whose study on teens driving under the influence of friends was recently published in the journal Health Psychology.
There could hardly be more important insights for teen drivers and those who love them. As your Portland car crash lawyers, we encourage you to be vigilant to the ways in which youth compounds the risks of automotive travel.
[posted February 25, 2015 by Portland attorney Bryan Dawson]
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