Recent fatal teen car crashes belie national downward trend

Associated Press

LUBBOCK, Texas

Derrek Lee Hager had just dropped off his girlfriend in the Texas Panhandle and was headed with four other friends to a nearby town to continue enjoying their spring break.

But the teens never made it, perishing in a fiery wreck near Dumas after the driver ran a stop sign and collided with a tanker loaded with fuel.

The deaths of the five Texas teens came the same day as an accident in Warren that killed six and a day before a crash in Illinois killed four. Three teenagers died Friday in Indiana when police said the drivers of two pickups ran a four-way stop and collided.

The deadly accidents serve as horrific reminders of the perils of teen driving but are a contrast to statistics indicating that fatal crashes among teen drivers have declined during the past decade, according to a report released last month by the Governors Highway Safety Association, which represents state highway- safety offices. The report also indicates that deaths of younger teen drivers sharply increased during the first six months of last year, reversing a 10-year trend.

There were 435 16-year-old drivers killed in 2000, according to the report, but by 2011 that had dropped to 173. During the same time period, deaths among 17-year-old drivers dropped from 564 to 250.

But deaths of 16- and 17-year-old drivers in traffic accidents during the first six months of 2012 rose a combined 19 percent during the same period of the previous year, from 202 to 240 deaths. The report, which does not include passenger deaths, is based on preliminary state data that sometime change.

Despite the recent increase, overall teen driving deaths are significantly lower than they were a decade ago, when teen drivers traveled with fewer state-imposed restrictions, including limits on driving with teen passengers and driving at night.

Twenty-five states reported increases from the first six months of 2011 to the same span last year, 17 had decreases, and eight states and the District of Columbia reported no change in the number of 16- and 17-year-old driver deaths.

Of the four states where the recent accidents occurred, two had increases, with Ohio jumping three and Indiana rising by 13. Teen-driver deaths in Texas decreased by two, and Illinois remained unchanged.

Deaths of young passengers when the driver was between age 15 and 20 have dropped significantly since 1982, when 1,898 riders within the same age range died, according to the report. In 2011, the year for which most-recent data are available, the number of deaths of passengers between 15 and 20 years old dropped to 777, the report showed.

Meanwhile, fewer American teens are getting driver’s licenses, part of a demographic segment that also includes those in their 20s and 30s, transportation researchers have found. Among those groups, the number of people with driver’s licenses has dropped significantly during the past three decades in the United States and in some other wealthy nations with a high proportion of Internet users.

Researchers surmise that virtual contact through Internet and other electronic means is reducing the need for face-to-face visits among young people, researchers say.

Early Tuesday, the bodies of four high school students from Wilmington, Ill., age 15 to 17, were recovered from a nearby creek.

Will County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Ken Kaupas said it appeared the driver hit a patch of water or ice and lost control.

The car tore through a guard rail on the bridge and plunged into the water.