Researchers say that teen drivers do not think about risk the same way adults do, leading them to take bigger chances when they’re behind the wheel – leading one teen safety advocate to say “there’s no such thing” as a safe teen driver.
A study by insurance company State Farm and the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia found that 75 percent of fatal accidents caused by teen drivers were because of three mistakes:
- Driving too fast for road or weather conditions.
- Not paying attention to the road and what may have been coming ahead or from the side.
- Being distracted by something – or someone – inside or outside the vehicle.
More than half of all fatal teen accidents are one-car crashes, and the main factor in one-car crashes is excessive speed. Driving too fast coupled with inexperienced teen drivers’ tendency to misjudge a curve or bump in the road results in thousands of fatal accidents every year.
In addition, research from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has found that almost 25 percent of teen drivers do not use seatbelts. The NHTSA said that in 2006, the last year for available numbers, 58 percent of teens killed in car accidents were not wearing a seatbelt.
If you or a loved one is involved in an accident that causes death or serious injury, call Callahan & Blaine, California’s Premier Litigation Firm. We are one of the leading catastrophic personal injury law firms in the state of California. In fact, in the last five years alone our lawyers have obtained over $1.5 billion in verdicts and settlements, including a record breaking $50 Million settlement against the City of Dana Point, which has been certified as the largest personal injury settlement in the history of the United States.
Callahan & Blaine also has numerous other record-breaking verdicts and settlement in Orange County, including the largest jury verdict in the history of Orange County ($934 Million), the largest class action settlement ($38 Million), the largest insurance bad faith judgment ($58 Million) and the largest employment law settlement ($38 Million). Callahan & Blaine also has recent personal injury settlements of $28 Million for a driver who was hit by a runaway truck wheel on the freeway, a $7.25 million settlement for a man who was run over trying to board a city bus, a $7.0 million settlement for a bicyclist who was struck by a newspaper delivery truck, and a $6.0 Million settlement for a bicyclist struck by an airport shuttle bus.
If you or someone you know has suffered a catastrophic injury or died as the result of an accident, please contact our California law firm for expert legal counsel.
