Now that Memorial Weekend is behind us, teens will soon be out of school, with keys in hand, and looking forward to a little summertime fun. During the days between Memorial Day and Labor Day, from 2009 to 2014, there were 63 traffic deaths in Washington involving 16-20 year-old drivers where the teen driver or teen passengers died. Extra vigilance is needed by parents to increase their focus on safety during the months ahead.

Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for teenagers. Per miles driven, teenagers have the highest fatality rate of all other age groups except drivers over the age of 80. A significant cause of teen driver collisions is the number of passengers under 21 in the vehicle. The risk of a collision increases 44 percent when a 16-17 year-old driver has a teen passenger in the vehicle, doubles with two teen passengers and quadruples with three or more teen passengers.

Nearly two-thirds of people injured or killed in a crash involving a teen driver are people other than the teen behind the wheel, according to a new report released by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety. In 2013 alone, 371,645 people were injured and 2,927 were killed in crashes in the U.S. that involved a teen driver.

“We want to raise the attention of parents to the risks their teens face as a driver or as a passenger riding with another teen driver,” said Jennifer Cook, AAA Washington spokesperson. “A teen’s lack of driving experience can make them underestimate dangerous situations or not be able to recognize hazardous driving conditions. We encourage parents to start the summer off with a parent-teen driving agreement to clearly define their teen’s driving responsibilities, privileges and consequences to set the stage for a safe summer.”

Impairment, speed and distraction are the major contributors to teen driver involved traffic fatalities. During the summer months from 2009 to 2014 in Washington: of the fatal crashes where 63 teenagers died:
• 42 fatalities involved impairment, 40 involved speeding and 17 involved distracted driving. Most fatalities had multiple contributing factors that caused the collisions.
• The teen drivers themselves were most often the drivers who committed the critical error(s) leading to the fatal crash. They were: 87% of all impaired drivers, 94% of all speeding drivers, 87% of all distracted drivers.

In Washington, teens who have earned their intermediate driver’s license have special restrictions on the number of passengers they may have in their vehicle and hours of the day when they’re not allowed to be on the road. For specific details on the Intermediate Drivers Licensing restrictions in Washington, go to TeenDriving.aaa.com. Regardless of the law, parents play a critical role in keeping teens safe.