Teen Driver Accidents Drop 20% in Indiana

Indiana has seen a 20 percent drop in the number of young drivers involved in accidents in the four years since it began requiring teens to wait longer to get their driver’s licenses.

The Graduated Driver Licensing program was implemented in 2009 and 2010. It is designed to expose teens to driving gradually and limits nighttime driving, passengers and cellphone use. It also requires teens to wait until at least six months after their 16th birthday to get a probationary license.

The Daily Journal reports the number of fatalities among young drivers has fallen in Indiana from an average of 173 from 2004 to 2006 to 127 in 2013. The Indiana Criminal Justice Institute reports that number fell again to 101 in 2013.

Nationally, drivers from 15 years to 20 years of age represent 6.4 percent of all motorists on the road, but account for 11.4 percent of fatalities and 14 percent of police-reported crashes resulting in injuries, according to report on a study of teen driving that appeared in the Jan. 2 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.