Younger drivers are more at risk of death and serious injury from road crashes because of:
Risk Taking: Young people are more likely to take risks.
Less developed driving skills: Due to limited on-road experience, young drivers tend to have less developed driving skills and are therefore less likely to anticipate future situations.
Alcohol: Young people tend to have a higher rate of alcohol consumption.
Fatigue: Young drivers tend to travel late at night and on weekends and therefore often drive tired which increases their chance of a crash.
Driving under dangerous conditions: Young people often drive older vehicles and late at night which increases their likelihood of a crash.
Drugs: Although many people recognise that alcohol affects driving skills and behaviours drugs can be just as dangerous. Mixing drugs with alcohol and driving is a lethal combination.
Factors contributing to road crashes
Speeding
Speeding is travelling faster than the posted speed limit or travelling too fast for the weather, light, traffic and road conditions even at speeds under the posted limit.2
|
 |
| State |
Learners (L) / Provisional (P) Drivers |
Other Drivers |
| VIC, NT, NSW, SA, TAS, QLD, ACT |
0% |
0.05% |
| WA |
0.02% |
0.05% |
*BAC is a measure of the amount of alcohol in the blood. Generally, the more alcohol a person drinks, the higher their BAC and level of intoxication.
- A quarter (25%) of fatal crashes involve alcohol being consumed by the driver or rider prior to the crash.5
- Just over half (52%) of these fatal crashes involve drivers or riders with a BAC that was at least three times the legal limit (greater than 0.15%).5
- Drivers are:
- twice as likely to crash with a BAC of 0.05%
- 7 times as likely to crash with a BAC of 0.08%
- 25 times more likely to crash with a BAC of 0.15%6
- Young people appear to be more affected by alcohol and are at a greater risk of crashing at a lower BAC than older drivers.7
- Alcohol affects the body in such a way that it can turn a safe driver into a potential killer. 7
- A person could still be over the limit the next day after a big night of drinking and should not drive until all the alcohol has left their system.7
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Fatigue
 Over half (55%) of fatigue-related crashes occur in drivers aged 25 years or younger.8- Young drivers are more likely to drive when tired which may be associated with lifestyle patterns such as driving late at night and combining study and work.
- Males aged 17 to 20 are more likely than any other group to be involved, as a driver or motorcycle rider, in a fatigue-related crash.5
- Recent research indicates that:
- 17 to 19 hours without sleep produces similar levels of driving performance as a BAC of 0.05%
- 20 to 25 hours without sleep produces driving performance levels for some tasks similar to that seen with a BAC of 0.10% 9
- Fatigue-related crashes are most likely to occur between midnight and 6am10.
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Seatbelts
 A quarter (25%) of people killed in road crashes were not wearing a seatbelt.5 - Drivers and passengers travelling unrestrained in a car are ten times more likely to be killed in a road crash than those wearing a seatbelt.5
- Moderately or highly intoxicated drivers involved in fatal crashes are less likely than sober drivers to wear a seatbelt. 11
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Other distractions
 Common distractions while driving include:
- Talking on your mobile phone
- Changing cd's or radio stations
- Loud music
- Eating and drinking
- Other passengers
- Using a mobile phone while driving increases the risk of being involved in a fatal crash by 4 to 9 times. 12, 13
- A study on text messaging found that the amount of time drivers spent with their eyes off the road increased by up to 400% when retrieving and sending text messages.14
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References:
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Triggs, T. and Smith, K. 1996, Young driver research program: Digest of reports and principal findings of the research. Federal Office of Road Safety, Canberra, ACT.
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Australian Transport Safety Bureau. 2004, Road Safey in Australia - A Publication Commemorating World Health Day 2004. Australian Government, Canberra, ACT.
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WA Police Service. 2002, Road Safety Section Speeding Brochure.
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Kloeden, C.N., McLean, A.J., Moore, V.M. and Ponte, G. 1997, Travelling Speed and the Risk of Crash involvement .NHMRC Road Accident Research Unit, The University of Adelaide.
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Data Analysis Australia. 2000, Analysis of Road Crash Statistics, 1990 to 1999. Road Safety Council.
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Roads and Traffic Authority. 2000, Drink Driving. Problem Definition and Countermeasure Summary.
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NRMA Motoring & Servicing. 2005, Young Drivers. Retrieved January 2006, from www.mynrma.com.au
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Pack, A. I., Pack, A. M., Rodgman, E., Cucchiara, A., Dinges, D. F. and Schwab, C. W. 1995, Characteristics of crashes attributed to the driver having fallen asleep. Accid. Anal. and Prev. 27 (6), 769-775.
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Lamond, N. and Dawson, D. 1999, Quantifying the performance impairment associated with fatigue. Journal of Sleep Research, 8, 255 - 262.
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Haworth, N. and Rechitzner, G. 1993, Description of Fatal Crashes Involving Various Causal Variables. CR119, Federal Office of Road Safety, Canberra, ACT.
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Cell Phone use may raise collision risk. 1997, IIHS Status Report, Vol 32, N°3, March 22, 1997.
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Violanti, J.M. 1998, Cellular phones and fatal traffic collisions. Accident Analysis and Prevention, 30(4): 519-524.
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Young, K., Hosking, S., Regan, M. The Effect of Text Messaging On the Driving Performance Of Young Novice Drivers. International Conference On Driver Distraction. 2-3 June 2005.
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