With teen at the wheel, fatal crashes fit a pattern
More than two-thirds of fatal single-vehicle teen crashes involved nighttime driving or at least one passenger age 16 to 19. Nearly three-fourths of the drivers were male. And 16-year-old drivers were the riskiest of all. Their rate of involvement in fatal crashes was nearly five times that of drivers ages 20 and older, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.
Teen brains not fully developed
New medical research helps explain why. The part of the brain that weighs risks and controls impulsive behavior isn't fully developed until about age 25, according to the National Institutes of Health.
A fellow classmate of mine (high school class of 2001) was killed in a car accident, about a month and a half after we graduated. He and some friends were speeding, and the driver hit some railroad tracks. The car spun out of control, and Dave was knocked out of the passenger seat. He wasn't wearing a seatbelt, and flew through the windshield and hit the pavement 50 feet away...
I knew Dave a little. He was a bit of a class clown (he really liked to make people laugh), and a nice guy...He was 18 ...
Every time someone says speeding isn't dangerous, I think of Dave.