Data/Surveillance

Young driver safety cannot be adequately measured by involvement in crashes alone (Williams, 2003). Young drivers often drive less than adults, so to account for differences in exposure the most precise measure of young driver crash risk is based on crash rates per VMT. Naturalistic driving studies have shown that crashes and near crashes per mile driven are higher among young drivers compared to older experienced drivers (Gershon et. al., 2018; Seacrist et al., 2018; Simons-Morton et al., 2011). It may be beneficial for SHSOs to collect teen driver exposure data; however, it is very costly and time intensive to do. As an alternative, SHSOs can examine crash rates per population or by licensed drivers, by single year of age, to better target countermeasures.