Likes, Distractions, and the Deadly Roads Teens Travel

The video started as I scrolled through my social media page at 11 on a Tuesday evening. There was twisted metal, flashing lights, and a reporter describing next to a wrecked sedan close to an oak tree along Highway 15. The title was: “Local teen critical after texting while driving causes crash.” I witnessed the story play out in the following three days. A seventeen year old female had been texting on Saturday when she swerved into the opposite lane, overcorrected, and lost her car. The tree gave her no second chance.

She survived, but the follow-up accounts informed her she’d never walk again. She’s not the only one. There’s a tragedy every day in America that reduces active teens to statistics and turns families into activist reformers they never volunteered to become.

Teen driver safety is not another policy problem; it’s a looming public health emergency. Six teenagers are killed in motor vehicle accidents every day, and yet motor vehicle accidents are the leading cause of death among Americans aged 16 to 19. These are not figures in a government report. These are seats never filled at graduation, college dreams shattered, and lives irreparably changed due to one poor choice.

The numbers are stark: teen drivers are four times more likely to be involved in a collision than adult drivers, yet make up only a tiny percentage of the nation’s licensed drivers. More than 2,400 teenagers died on American roads in 2023 alone, with thousands more suffering life-changing injuries such as the girl’s. The deaths are tragic because they could have been prevented. Most teen wrecks occur as a result of a mix of inexperience and unsafe driving practices that can be improved on by good driver’s education.

Driver’s ed is the most powerful connection between the process of acquiring a license and being a good driver. It’s not merely a matter of memorizing traffic code or parking in parallel; quality driver’s ed programs instill the defensive mindset and hazard perception skills that separate safe drivers from crash statistics. States that have mandatory driver’s education routinely score lower for teen crashes, proving that training saves lives.

Teen drivers today are riding on a record-breaking wave of risks that earlier generations never encountered. The computer era has brought with it distractions that the 1990s car phone is old news. Smartphone alerts, GPS technology, streaming music, and constant connectivity form a perfect storm of distracted driving.

Peer pressure is just as powerful as ever, but now it’s bolstered by the social media ethos in which dangerous behavior is rewarded with likes and shares. The teenager taking a video of himself riding 80 mph in his car isn’t merely one-upping three buddies in the car. He’s performing for hundreds of online followers. This pressure to create “content” makes every ride behind the wheel a film shoot, with fatal consequences.

Inexperience makes contemporary problems worse. Teen brains are not fully developed. The part of the brain that is crucial for risk management and impulse control is also underdeveloped at this stage of life. Mix strong pressure from peers and distraction by technology, and good intentions can get overrun by poor behavior. To solve this issue, realities need to be faced instead of ignoring them. Driver’s ed courses need to be modified to cope with the realities of smartphone addiction and social media pressure. Honest dialogue about peer pressure can assist teens in learning how to withstand bad impulses.

My awareness about distracted driving came from a close call. Last summer my friend Sam was driving us home after a night out when his phone vibrated with a text from his roommate. In a moment of distraction, he picked it up while on a turn at 55 mph. As he read the message, he drove the car toward the guardrail over a 200-foot drop.

“Sam!” I shouted. He barely had time to glance up to assist us in returning to the proper lane, inches from the guardrail. We traveled the remainder of the evening in silence, both of us aware of how quickly we might have become another news headline.

That night changed my mind about passenger responsibility. I realized that keeping silent while friends get behind the wheel and drive unsafely makes me part of the problem. Now, I respectfully cut off drivers who make poor choices. Sometimes it is embarrassing, but having moments like that remind me that it is better to be embarrassed than involved in an accident.

Teenagers must be made road-safe through society’s joint effort. Teens should understand that driving is not a privilege but a right that they have to manage responsibly, i.e., staying alert and making adult decisions. This includes personal standards: putting phones in the glove compartment, getting passengers to offer feedback on safety, and never acting aloof while driving.

They can have peer education that includes student drivers who were involved in a crash providing testimonials. These are more powerful than adult lectures. They also must work with local driving schools to provide continuous education after the first license requirement.

Communities must invest in high-quality driver education courses that address issues of today. This means investing in sim lab technology, teaching instructors about issues of today’s teen psychology, and creating programs with parents as part of their teen’s driver education.

Parents will be most effective by being open to discussing the decision-making process about driving and by practicing safe driving themselves. Graduated licensing systems work best when parents are incorporated into the supervision and feedback loop, not just giving over the keys.

One choice would have avoided the girl’s accident. Putting away her phone before she began to drive. Sam’s close brush with death could have killed us both if I had not opened my mouth. We are reminded by these incidents that teen driver safety isn’t actually about being perfect in our choices as perfect individuals; it’s about creating systems, education, and cultures that permit flawed teenagers to make sound choices when the stakes are quite literally life or death.

The question is not whether we can eradicate all teen driver accidents. It’s whether we will have the total commitment necessary to eliminate the avoidable ones. That anonymous teenager’s tale is a reminder each day that inaction costs dollars but it is garnered in deferred dreams and reshaped lives.

How many more unused graduation seats will it take before we place teen driver safety on the priority it should have?