high school students did not always wear a seat belt when riding in a car driven by someone else. 11 For example, results from the National Occupant Protection Use Survey (NOPUS) Controlled Intersection study from 2016–2019 indicate that seat belt use in the front seat among teens and young adults (16–24 years of age) was approximately 87% each year, whereas seat belt use among adults (25 years of age or older) in the front seat was about 90% or higher for each year during the same period.

Compared with other age groups, teens and young adults often have the lowest seat belt use rates.

In 2019, 40% of motor vehicle crash deaths among teens aged 13–19 occurred between 9 pm and 6 am, and 52% occurred on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday.

Data from the 2016–2017 National Household Travel Survey indicate that teen drivers aged 16–19 years were almost 3 times as likely to be involved in fatal nighttime crashes than adult drivers aged 30–59 years per mile driven.

Nighttime driving is riskier than daytime driving for drivers of all ages but is particularly dangerous for teen drivers.

8,9 Teens are also more likely than adults to make critical decision errors that can lead to serious crashes.

Teens are more likely than older drivers to underestimate or not be able to recognize dangerous situations.

5–7 Data from the 2016–2017 National Household Travel Survey indicate that the crash rate per mile driven is about 1.5 times as high external icon for 16-year-old drivers as it is for 18–19-year-old drivers.

Crash risk is particularly high during the first months of licensure.This risk increases with each additional teen or young adult passenger. The presence of teen or young adult passengers increases the crash risk of unsupervised teen drivers.Teens driving with teen or young adult passengers.In 2019, the motor vehicle death rate for male drivers aged 16–19 was over two times higher than the death rate for female drivers of the same age.Teens who are at especially high risk for motor vehicle crashes are:

In fact, per mile driven, teen drivers in this age group are nearly three times as likely as drivers aged 20 or older to be in a fatal crash. The risk of motor vehicle crashes is higher among teens aged 16–19 than among any other age group.

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