Safety Experience of Young Drivers in Comparison to Experienced Drivers

In the United States, young drivers (16-24 years) are overrepresented in crashes when compared to experienced drivers. When looking at the methods of improving road safety of young drivers, it is important to identify the determinants of higher crash risk. The study described in this paper investigated the effect of various driver-, vehicle-, crash-, and environment-related factors and contributory causes on young driver crash risk using police-reported crash data from Kansas during 2006-2009 time period. Odds Ratio (OR) analysis was carried out using binary logistic regression to identify factors over-represented in young-driver crashes as compared to experienced drivers. According to calculated ORs with 95% of confidence intervals, it was seen that young drivers were more likely to be involved in crashes when driving with an invalid license, driving without wearing seat belts, driving at night, during weekends, on wet roads, or gravel/brick-tops. Results further showed that young drivers were overrepresented in intersection-related crashes or runoff-the-road crashes as compared to experienced drivers. Also, they were more likely to be involved in crashes due to failure to yield right-of-way; disregarding traffic signs/signals; turning or lane changing, improper action, aggressive driving; and some other driver contributory causes, compared to experienced drivers. Based on identified overrepresented factors and contributory causes, countermeasure ideas were suggested to improve safety of young drivers.