What can be done to reduce teenagers high crash rates?
The most effective policies limit teenagers’ driving exposure — for example, night driving and passenger restrictions for beginning drivers and higher ages for initial licensure. General curfews that apply to all late-night activities for 13-17 year-olds also reduce crashes and crash injuries. Graduated licensing, designed to provide beginning drivers with an opportunity to gain experience behind the wheel under conditions that minimize risk, was originally introduced in New Zealand in 1987. Beginning with Florida in 1996, the majority of states have now introduced elements of graduated licensing. Evaluations of graduated licensing systems in New Zealand, Nova Scotia, Florida, North Carolina and Michigan have shown them to reduce crashes substantially. Formal evaluations of U.S. high school driver education programs indicate little or no effect in reducing crashes per licensed driver. And offering driver education in schools has an unintended negative effect on crash involvement by en
