The deadliest season

Published 12:01 am Tuesday, July 19, 2011

LYNNWOOD — Summer is an especially dangerous time for teenage drivers.

They’re out of school, going on vacations and taking long rides to summer concerts, putting more inexperienced people on the road.

“We’re a go-fast society,” said Bill Kellogg, owner and instructor at A-Team Driving School in Lynnwood.

Statewide, between 2004 and 2008 there were 1,003 fatal crashes involving a driver ages 16-25, making up 39 percent of all crashes during those year, according to Washington Traffic Safety Commission data.

Summer is deemed by AAA the deadliest time of the year for teen drivers and passengers, based off crash analysis data completed by the auto club. Six of the year’s 10 deadliest days for teens are in the summer months (Jan. 21, May 20 and 26, June 10, July 2, 4, 9, 15 and 23 and Nov. 11).

Nationwide, more than 7,300 teen drivers and passengers ages 13-19 died in traffic crashes between the Memorial Day and Labor Day holidays from 2005 to 2009, according to AAA.

The association suggests parents set up boundaries. This means eliminating needless trips, limiting driving at night and the number of passengers in a teen’s car, as well as having a conversation about what to do if a teen or their ride is intoxicated or under the influence of drugs.

Parents shouldn’t underestimate their ability to protect their teens while driving, said Janet Ray, a AAA Washington spokeswoman. Children watch their parents’ driving habits and tend to follow.

All the talk about crashes and deadly days isn’t intended to scare parents into keeping teenagers off the road, Ray added. Rather, discussing the issue can help parents and teens make choices that will help lower the incidence of crashes.

“It’s a good time of year to remind people about something they should remember all year long,” she said.

When the discussion involves young people getting hurt or dying, it’s inherently going to be an emotional topic, said Dick Doane, a researcher for the Washington Traffic Safety Commission.

That’s where information and education play a role.

“The more information they have, the better decisions they’ll make,” Doane said.

Inexperience plays into the heightened risk of crashes, but it doesn’t paint the entire picture, Doane said. On a deeper level, developmental immaturity puts teens at a higher risk. The prefrontal cortex of the brain, which controls analytical thinking and impulse control, matures when people hit theirs 20s and, for some, their 30s, he said.

“We had an ‘a-ha!’ moment when we looked at brain development studies and matched them to crashes categorized by age,” he said.

Kellogg teaches what he’s observed in his 15 years of instruction.

“I’m not going to beat them into changing their behavior,” Kellogg said. “When they do something I’ve taught, I know they took away something.”

Safe-driving tips

AAA suggests the following tips for parents to keep teen drivers safe:

n Limit teens’ driving to essential trips for at least the first year of driving.

n Become an effective driving coach.

n Limit the number of teen passengers.

n Restrict night driving.

n Establish a parent-teen agreement about night driving, passengers and access to the car.