The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta recently reported that the number of teen drivers involved in fatal vehicular accidents dropped in 2008, the last year for which this statistic is available. This number represents the fifth year of decreasing crash rates for 16- and 17-year-olds in the report. The percentage decrease since 2004 is about 38 percent, with a 23-percent decline in the last year, 2007 to 2008.
The number of fatal crashes involving 16- and 17-year-old drivers in Illinois also decreased. In 2004, 78 fatal crashes were reported involving drivers who 16 or 17 years old. In 2005, that number went down to 69 but then back up again to 86 in 2006. And then, the number began declining, to 80 in 2007 and plummeted to 31 in 2008. That represents about a 40-percent decrease from the 2004 number, nearly mirroring the national decline.
The following graph shows the number of fatal crashes involving 16- and 17-year-old drivers from 1990 to 2008 for the entire US. The rate is calculated as the number of crashes per 10,000 16- and 17-year-olds in the population.
Data support a steady decline in the number of fatal crashes involving 16- and 17-year-old drivers since about the early 90s, when this statistic started being tracked. The authors believe the decrease, sharpest from 2007 to 2008, could be a result of the economic downturn, with higher fuel prices leading to less discretionary travel by teenagers and therefore fewer accidents per capita.
