Young drivers – crashes - Road Safety

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The number of young drivers killed or seriously injured in road crashes is a serious problem in all states of Australia. Young people aged 16 to 25 make up 13% of Australia’s population but account for nearly 25% of road deaths.

Young drivers exhibit certain attributes that contribute to their higher risk of road crashes. These include:

Lack of experience
Risk taking behaviour
The use of older vehicles with less safety features
Speeding
Peer pressure

Figure 1 – Rate of drivers killed or seriously injured by age, per 100,000 population, 1999-2003 average

Findings

Young drivers aged 16 to 20 had the highest rate of all age groups at 150 casualties per 100,000 population (3 to 4 times higher than some)
Drivers aged 21 to 25 had the second highest rate at 119 casualties per 100,000 population.

Why, when and where did they die?
On average between 1999-2003, for drivers in the 16-25 year age group who were killed or seriously injured:

38% of drivers who were killed had a Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) of .05 or above and 23% of drivers seriously injured recorded a BAC of .05 or above
13% were not wearing a seat belt
54% occurred on Friday, Saturday or Sunday
24% occurred between 4-5pm, 6-8pm or 12-1am
53% were on country roads and 42% on roads signposted as 100km/h or 110km/h
63% were male.

What types of cars were involved?
Australian research found:

Young drivers often drive older, cheaper vehicles that are likely to have fewer safety features than newer vehicles
most young drivers involved in fatal crashes were driving fairly ordinary cars
very few were driving high performance vehicles.

Night driving
Young drivers are more likely to drive at night and on weekends than older drivers.

Figure 3 – Proportion of fatal and seriously injured drivers by time of day and age group, 1999-2003

Findings

55% of young drivers aged 16-25 are killed or seriously injured in crashes that occur during the night compared with 37% of other drivers
Nearly 40% of young driver serious casualties occurred on the weekend, compared with 30% for other drivers.

Driving at night has unique hazards and requires more developed skills. All drivers have an elevated crash risk at night. This is greater for younger drivers because of lack of experience and higher involvement in risk taking.