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Toledo Blade
Distraction
risk heightens teens' driving danger during '100 days'
By David Patch
Aniyah Weidman wasn’t talking on a phone, much less texting or some
other more dangerous form of distraction, when she crashed her car into
the back of a truck on Talmadge Road near Franklin Park Mall in March.
The 16-year-old’s only distraction was her passenger: her boyfriend
whose birthday they had celebrated at a restaurant on Talmadge that
evening.
“We were having a conversation. I was paying attention, but I guess I
wasn’t paying enough attention,” Miss Weidman said as she recounted how
she hit the truck that had stopped in front of her near the Sylvania
Avenue intersection about 8:30 p.m. that day.
That experience fresh in mind, the St. Ursula Academy junior says she
now sees how the large groups of young people who hit the streets
during summer’s long, warm evenings can be a danger to themselves as
well as others.
Traffic safety experts have even come up with a name for the
peak-driving period that began Memorial Day and wraps up around Labor
Day: The 100 deadliest days.
Nationwide, more than 1,050 people died in crashes involving a teen
driver during that period in 2016, the most recent year for which
national statistics have been compiled, according to the AAA Foundation
for Traffic Safety. The average of just more than 10 such deaths per
day marks a 14 percent increase over the rest of the year, the auto
club said.
“The number of fatal crashes involving teen drivers during the summer
is an important traffic safety concern, and research shows that young
drivers are at greater risk and higher crash rates compared to older
and more experienced drivers,” said Cindy Antrican, a regional
spokesman for the auto club.
Ohio statistics from the Ohio Highway Patrol show a similar spike in
fatal crashes involving young drivers during the “100 days” time frame,
although the patrol’s data also show that fatal crashes overall
increase by a similar percentage during the peak summer driving season.
It’s the combination of the two factors — more drivers on the road and
young drivers’ disproportionate involvement in crashes — that brings
teens’ summer driving to the fore.
“During this time frame, teens are living a more carefree lifestyle,”
said Jamie Blazevich, traffic safety program coordinator at the
Educational Service Center of Lake Erie West. “They really have no
schedules, so they stay up later, leading to drowsy driving, in
addition to more time to drive, putting the statistics higher in
general.
“We also know that since teens are social beings, they want to get out
more and pick up friends to go places with since they don’t see their
friends at school any more,” Ms. Blazevich said. “Therefore, they are
traveling more to pick up their friends and may have more passengers in
the vehicle, leading to more distractions for the driver.”
Teen drivers drive less than everyone except the elderly, but have a
per-mile crash rate triple that of drivers 20 and older, according to
the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. And according to the U.S.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, traffic crashes are the
leading cause of death for Americans teenagers.
Nobody was hurt in Miss Weidman’s crash, but she had to pay both a
traffic fine and several hundred dollars’ deductible from her
insurance, and still doesn’t know what effect it will have on her next
premium.
Not to mention, it spoiled the evening.
“I felt really bad we got into an accident on his birthday,” she said.
“I need to pay more attention to the road — I need to be focused.”
In a statement, the auto club urged parents of teen drivers to
emphasize the danger of speeding and heightened risks of nighttime
driving and “teach by example and minimize your own risky behavior when
behind the wheel.”
It also advocated for passage of Ohio House Bill 293, which would
lengthen the Temporary Instruction Permit phase of young-driver
licensing from six months to 12 and start “supervised nighttime
driving” for novice drivers at 10 p.m. instead of midnight.
Contact David Patch at dpatch@theblade.com or 419-724-6094.
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