How many teens die every year in car accidents every year?

Question

How many teens die every year in car accidents every year?

Answer 1

DECEMBER 2007

Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death among 15- to 20-year olds. According to the U.S.

Department of Transportation, 3,490 drivers in this age group died in motor vehicle crashes in 2006 and an additional 272,000 were injured. Drivers age 15- to 20-years old accounted for 12.9 percent of all the drivers involved in fatal crashes and 16 percent of all the drivers involved in police-reported crashes.

Twenty-five percent of teen drivers killed were intoxicated. In 2002 (latest data available) the estimated economic cost of police-reported crashes involving drivers between the ages of 15 and 20 was $40.8 billion.

Answer 2

Every year, there are 1.6 million crashes involving teens.

Answer 3

Accidents cause the most deaths annually in the United States. Car, boating, gun, fire, and even freak accidents cause tens of thousands of deaths each year. The most common type of accident, particularly among teens, is car accidents. The chances of a sixteen-year-old driver being in a fatal car accident are five times greater than those of a twenty-year-old driver. Each year, there are 1.6 million car crashes involving teens.

Every year, more American teenagers die in car wrecks than any other way. Nationally, that number was 5,610 fatalities in 2004.

Statistics from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety show that alcohol is a factor in only 15 percent of the 16- and 17-year-old drivers killed in 2004 car wrecks in the U.S.