Sunday, May 13, 2001

Car crashes are No. 1 cause of teen deaths Fatality rate drops, but thousands still losing lives on nation’s roads
By Martha Irvine / Associated Press

FORT ATKINSON, Wis. — Evidence of the crash would be easy to miss at this intersection on a lonely stretch of two-lane highway, tucked amid the rolling green hills and dairy farms of southern Wisconsin.

Those who speed by might not notice the skid marks or the red spray paint used to scrawl a heart and a few words on the pavement of state Highway 18. And the handmade crosses that mark this and other roadsides across the country where teens have died.

These are reminders that while school violence has grabbed the nation’s attention, automobile crashes are the No. 1 killer of Americans ages 15 to 20, and have been for decades.

Though deaths and injuries have dropped in the last decade, thousands of driving-age teens still die in crashes each year.

In 1999, about 520,000 were injured and more than 4,900 died, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Alcohol was a factor in more than a third of the deaths. Safety experts say the major factors that contribute to teen-age road deaths include distractions such as music, passengers and cell phones.

Add a general lack of driving experience to the mix and the risk of a crash becomes even greater, says Cheryl Neverman, NHTSA’s youth program coordinator. “We pay all this attention to school shootings,” she says. “And yet young people die in their cars every day, every hour.”