Car insurance trouble when teens drive teens

Trouble when teens drive teens



By The Sentinel, February 6, 2005



Common sense tells you that a car accident is likely to be worse when an inexperienced driver is behind the wheel.



So, it's not surprising to see a study that says children are likely to be three times more seriously injured in a crash where a teen-ager is behind the wheel.



Partners for Child Passenger Safety says 40 percent of the children driven by teens were younger than 13, a factor that suggests some parents rely on teens to transport younger siblings.



That's not a shocker either, since families where both parents work, or where the parent is single and holds a job, are likely to need help with transportation. Predictably, they feel some relief when a child is old enough to be licensed and pick up some of the trips to dentists, after-school sports and so on.



The trouble is that seat-belt usage is significantly lower when teens drive younger children. Teens also are more likely to let a little brother or sister ride in the front seat.



These were findings when the child safety group reviewed 12,163 State Farm cases in which 19,111 children were involved. State Farm Insurance and the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia funded the study.



So on top of the possibility that teens may take more risks, the look at seat belt passage shows that while 89.9 percent of children use them when with adults, the percentage drops to 72 when a teen is at the helm.



This isn't something that the police can control by giving tickets, especially in Pennsylvania, where seat belt violations are a secondary offense.



So Dr. Flaura Winston, the study's author, recommends changing the state's laws to limit who can ride with teens. The idea is to make ridership subject to experience levels.



This has come up before in a more general way involving teens driving with teens, when they're less likely to use seat belts and more likely to distract the driver or egg him on to take excessive risks.



Parents need to be alert to the accident and injury numbers and the risk they take in letting teenagers drive completely unsupervised.



It's tough to hold out on a teenage driver who itches to be behind the wheel. It's easy to give in when giving a teen the keys makes the parent's life a little easier.



But these are excuses that don't cut it after an accident that causes injuries and death.



It's impossible to monitor what a teenager does every moment, but the parent never is off-duty.



So, be extra careful when allowing teens to drive their siblings and friends around. We now have a study that demonstrates the risk involved.