Reducing deaths from driving

A new study that followed more than 150,000 teen drivers over eight
years has found that drivers ed significantly reduces crashes
and traffic violations among new drivers.
Young drivers who
have not completed drivers ed are 75 percent more likely to
get a traffic ticket, 24 percent more likely to be involved in a
fatal or injury accident and 16 percent more likely to have an
accident, the study showed.
Those findings
challenge more than three decades of assumptions about the value of
drivers ed. After an early 1980s study that questioned the
effectiveness of drivers ed classes, many states quit paying
for those programs. Some insurance companies discontinued offering
premium discounts for drivers ed.
Researchers Duane
Shell and Ian Newman of the Nebraska Prevention Center for Alcohol
and Drug Abuse at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln compiled the
driving records of 151,800 Nebraska youth who obtained their
provisional operators permit between 2003 and 2010.
About 53 percent
of the teens took a state-approved drivers ed course to
qualify for the permit. The remainder qualified by logging 50 hours
of practice driving under the supervision of a parent or other adult.
During their first year of driving, the group who took drivers ed
had significantly fewer accidents and traffic tickets than the group
that logged driving hours without formal driving instruction.