Getting a first driver鈥檚 license is seen as a major milestone in teenagers鈥� independence, but a new study suggests students鈥� practice driving may not be preparing them for the risks of that freedom.
The new study, published in the Journal of Adolescent Health, for the first time tracked individual teenagers and their parents over the year before and after the teenagers moved from learner鈥檚 permits to full driver鈥檚 licenses. They found in the first three months after getting a license than during the last three months on a learner鈥檚 permit.
The researchers installed temporary devices in the cars of 90 teenagers with learning permits and 131 experienced adult drivers in Virginia. The trackers recorded both motion data on 鈥渒inematic risky driving"鈥� sudden acceleration or braking, hard turns, or swerves (鈥淜RD鈥� in the chart below)鈥攁nd videos of each driver and his environment.
As the following chart shows, student-drivers steadily improved in the last three months before getting their driver鈥檚 licenses; by the end, teenage girls and boys alike were as safe as the adults in their rates of crashing or risky driving. After they had a license to drive independently, however, teenagers鈥� rates of crashes and near misses shot up;mdash;and while girls鈥� crash rates then fell back, boys continued to drive unsafely:
Experience and Judgment
Those findings align with prior studies that show new drivers remain at a higher risk for a full year or two after earning a license.
鈥淭eens pretty quickly learn to manage the vehicle, in about four to six hours of practice driving,鈥� said Bruce Simons-Morton, a co-author of the study and a senior investigator with the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development鈥檚 health behavior branch. 鈥淯nfortunately, I think that gives supervising [adults] the sense of false security that if [the student driver] can manage the vehicle, they can manage themselves in traffic. But that takes judgment, and many studies show that judgment comes much, much slower.鈥�
The new study鈥檚 video data also showed teenagers had fewer accidents during dark or rainy driving conditions than clear days. Counterintuitively, the bad conditions may help new drivers drive more carefully, Simons-Morton said. Prior studies have found by texting, eating, and talking to passengers. Even when adults allow themselves to be distracted, they refocus more quickly and respond faster to problems ahead on the road, the videos show.
These skills come from experience anticipating and avoiding road dangers, Simons-Morton said, but that鈥檚 something few driver鈥檚 education instructors or parents focus on during practice driving. Driver鈥檚 education programs typically spend 30 or more hours of classroom instruction preparing students for the written licensure test, but often only six or seven hours of practice driving. In recent years every state has moved to graduated licenses, which require students to log on average 50 hours of driving with a parent or other adult before earning a license to drive independently.
But prior studies suggest adults, be they parents or driving instructors, tend to take over or prevent a teenager from getting into dangerous situations while learning to drive.
鈥淒uring the learner鈥檚 permit period, parents are present, so there are some skills that teenagers cannot learn until they are on their own,鈥� says Pnina Gershon, the study鈥檚 lead author and also of NICHD, in a statement. 鈥淲e need a better understanding of how to help teenagers learn safe driving skills when parents or other adults are not present.鈥�
In a separate, forthcoming study, the researchers have observed the most effective driving instructors in Australia, and have started to cull practices for 鈥渉igher order driving instruction.鈥� Among them:
- Anticipatory learning, such as pointing out typical situations鈥攆or example, an intersection where hedges or parked cars partially obscure the driver鈥檚 vision鈥攁nd asking the student to notice the dangers that may cause.
- Setting driving rules not just around where and when the teenager can drive, but also safety limits such as on the number of other teenage passengers in the car or using technology while driving.
Photo Source: Getty