Teen crash report

Distraction is the major factor in 58-percent of all crashes involving teenagers, based on a new report from the Triple-A Foundation for Traffic Safety. The report cites video analysis that found distraction was a factor in nearly 6 out of 10 moderate-to-severe teen crashes, which is four times as many as official estimates based on police reports. Researchers analyzed the six seconds leading up to a crash in nearly 1,700 videos of teen drivers taken from in-vehicle event recorders. Interacting with other passengers and cell phone use were the most common distractions leading up to a crash by a teen driver, followed by looking at something inside or outside the vehicle, singing or moving  to music, grooming or reaching for an object. The report also says parents must take a more active role in educating their teens about distracted driving and creating a parent-teen driving agreement,  specially during the first six months of driving.  Teens have the highest crash rate of any group in the United States. About 963-thousand drivers age 16-19 were involved in police-reported crashes in 2013, which is the most recent year of available data. These  crashes resulted in 383-thousand injuries and 2,865 deaths.  (MRN)