1. Knowledge about Crash Risk Factors and Self-Reported Driving Behavior
Exploratory Analysis on Multi-State Teen Driver Survey By
Lisa Minjares-Kyle, M.S., CPPE, CPST
Associate Transportation Researcher
Texas A&M Transportation Institute
This presentation is covering the findings from a large teen survey that was facilitated to the peer-to-peer teen traffic safety initiative known as Teens in the Driver Seat. I will present some of the highlights and interesting findings but we are only truly scratching the surface of this data and hope to get even more information which I will talk about later in my presentation. The survey is approved through the institutional review board

2. Car crashes are the leading cause of death for teens and young adults.
Why Are We Here?
Car crashes are the leading cause of death for teens and young adults.
Annually we lose over 2800 teens a year in fatal crashes and an additional tens of thousands are injured. To put this teen fatalities into perspective, it would be equivalent to…
2,820
teens died in 2016 and thousands are injured in car crashes every year.
Equivalent to a school bus full of teens crashing every week for a year.

3. The Fundamental Reason
Along with these additional 5 risks:
Driver inexperience is the #1 cause for teen crashes..

4. Nighttime/Drowsy Driving
Top Teen Driving Risks
Distractions
Nighttime/Drowsy Driving
Speeding/Racing
Low Seat Belt Use
Impaired Driving
But we know, in combination with experience, there are five main factors involved in teen crashes which are list
(Source: National Safety Council)

5. Overview/Methodology
Demographics
Knowledge of top risk factors
Traffic background
License status
Driver education history
Crash/citation history
Self-reported driving behaviors within past 30 days
This survey was distributed to schools within their resource kit who signed up to become part of the Teens in the Driver Seat Program between 2007 and Distribution of the survey was voluntary but schools were encouraged to complete the surveys and were given points towards a reward program sponsored by State Farm. Schools who did agree to distribute the survey were then asked to target 90% of their driving population or a minimum of 300 students across all age groups to help achieve a representative sample.
The survey was designed to obtain demographic information including age, gender, grade classification and geographic data including their school and city. The second portion of the survey asked them to list the five most common factors that contribute to teenagers involvement in car crashes. This is an open-ended answer which we will discuss later in the presentation. The third portion of the survey focuses on traffic safety including their licensing status (permit, provisional, unrestricted or none) and the kind of driver education course they’ve completed. Lastly the survey asked them to self-report on the frequency they’ve enagaged in 12 behaviors within the past 30 days on a scale of none, some (1-5 times) or a lot (more than 5 times). Questions in this section included questions on both driver and passenger behaviors on a range of risky driver behaviors such as distractions, riding with other teens, night time driving, no seat belts, etc. which we will discuss later in the presentation.

6. Survey Population
This sample includes 109, 266 surveys from 11 states from The state that has the highest representation is Texas with over 88,000 surveys followed by Georgia with nearly 11,000, Connecticut with over 3,000 and North Carolina with 3,000. the remaining states ranged between 1,789 – 11 respectively.

7. Demographics
17.6%
Of teens reported receiving an on-road driving test before receiving a license. FM
L P U N

8. Talked on a Cell Phone or Texted while Driving “Some”
Texted while Driving “A Lot”
More than 5 times in past 30 days
Between 1-5 times in past 30 days
Cell-Phone Talking – A lot

9. Driven or Ridden without wearing a Seat Belt “A Lot”
wearing a Seat Belt “Some”
More than 5 times in past 30 days
Between 1-5 times in past 30 days
Ridden without a seat belt

10. Driven 10 MPH Over Speed Limit “A Lot”
More than 5 times in past 30 days

11. Driven after drinking Driven after drinking alcohol “A Lot”
alcohol “Never”
More than 5 times in past 30 days

12. Driven or Ridden with Teens without an Adult “A Lot”
More than 5 times in past 30 days

13. Driven After 10 PM without an Adult “A Lot”
More than 5 times in past 30 days

14. Top 10 Reported Risk Factors
Drinking
Text
Phone
Seat Belt
Drug
Speed
Talking
Distraction
Inattention
Music

15. Bottom 10 Reported Risk Factors
Careless
Sleep
Eating
Friends
Smoking
Tired
Passengers
Light
Road
Weather

16. F
Gender Differences M

17. Conclusions Most Frequent Risky Behaviors reported
Distractions related to cell-phone use
Speeding
Riding with teens
Driving after 10 pm
Significant lack of Risk identification for
Night time risk factors
Teen passengers
Significant gender differences for
Texting, passengers, speeding and seatbelts
Limitations
Random effect for states outside of Texas
Small sampling size
Conclusions
Limitations
Next Steps

18. Lisa Minjares-Kyle, M.S., CPST, CPPE Phone: 713-613-9211 E-mail: l-minjares@tti.tamu.edu
Thank you!