Overview

The term young drivers usually refers to drivers under the age of 21. Teenage drivers represent 6% of Kentucky’s driving population., Young drivers make up 20% of all collisions, 21% of all injury collisions, and 16% of all fatal collisions in Kentucky. According to the National Center for Statistics and Analysis, young drivers account for only 6.3 percent of licensed drivers but they account for 14 percent of drivers involved in fatal crashes.

Based upon Kentucky’s collision statistics from 2003 to 2005 the factors that contribute to crashes include driver inattention, impaired driving (use of alcohol or drug, medication or fatigue), aggressive driving (speeding and poor judgment of road conditions), improper vehicle control and overcorrecting. Other factors such as misjudgment, cell phone usage, distraction, improper backing or passing, failure to yield to the right of way, and disregarding a traffic signal are also factors leading to young drivers involved in crashes.

Click here for links for new drivers.

Emphasis Area Goal

To substantially reduce the risk of injury and fatalities of young drivers on Kentucky roadways through the implementation of strategies which target new drivers, teenage drivers, and parents of teenage drivers.

Strategies

• Drivers under 18 years should stop receiving pre-payable traffic citations via mail and parent or guardian should accompany drivers under 18 years of age when paying pre-payable traffic citations or appearing before attending court for a traffic violation.
• Implement a ban on cell phone usage when driving for drivers under 18 years old.
• Amend existing statues to eliminate the immediate purge, following reinstatement of license, of 0.02 BAC or higher driving under the influence violations from the records of young drivers.
• Include traffic safety education in the Kentucky Core Content/Program Studies and make the teaching of highway safety mandatory in classrooms.
• Continue the partnership with Drive Smart which focuses on seatbelt usage in schools.
• Enhance drivers testing with emphasis on skills testing and test scenarios which simulate typical driving situations.
• Transfer the focus of training school referrals to driver rehabilitation from penalty avoidance. Revise the requirements of training schools to have a minimum program length of 8 hours, attendance once every two years from once annually, and an increase in the fees for a total of $75.00.

Performance Measures

• Number of injury/fatal/total crashes involving young drivers
• Number of traffic related citations issued to young drivers
• Number of cell phone related crashes involving young drivers
• Number of young drivers impaired driving arrests
• Number of young drivers driving licenses suspended for driving under the influence
• Recidivism rate of young drivers toward driving under the influence
• Seatbelt compliance rate among young drivers
• Number of times legislative bills are introduced as a deterrence to young drivers driving under the influence