[Dylan16807]

Huh, 1.5x fatalities is not as bad as I expected.

Especially since those are the least experienced drivers. I wonder how 18-21 drivers look in countries with a higher age.

Though one way to look at it is that a teen driver today is just as safe/dangerous as an average driver 20 years ago, much safer than an average driver 30 years ago, and over twice as safe as an average driver 40 years ago. At least as far as fatalities go.

[boomboomsubban]

>Especially since those are the least experienced drivers.

They're also the only cohort that can't legally drink, which probably lowers their fatality rate somewhat.

[eadmund]

In the U.S., 18–21 year olds cannot legally drink, either: the federal government withholds highway funds from any state which has a drinking age less than 21, so they all raised their drinking ages.

[boomboomsubban]

The cohorts were 16-19 then 20-24. The second cohort has a year without legal drinking, I paraphrased too much.

[lotsofpulp]

Cars are much, much safer than 20, 30, and 40 years ago.

You would have to look at number of all collisions, not just fatalities to get any idea if today’s teens are safer compared to teens in the past.

[Dylan16807]

> Cars are much, much safer than 20, 30, and 40 years ago.

Yes, that's my point. When cars are vastly safer, maybe it's not so bad to let moderately worse drivers be on the road.

> You would have to look at number of all collisions, not just fatalities to get any idea if today’s teens are safer compared to teens in the past.

Depends on what kind of safety you're worried about. Also I couldn't find any raw collision statistics.

[dncornholio]

> Yes, that's my point. When cars are vastly safer, maybe it's not so bad to let moderately worse drivers be on the road.

Tell that to the pedestrians, cyclists and motorcycle drivers and see what they will say.

[sokoloff]

Are those excluded from the safety numbers now?! That seems like a terrible omission if so.

[scrose]

Car safety ratings in the USA do not test for safety of people outside of the car. Otherwise the vast majority of modern pickups and SUVs would not pass those tests, primarily due to the increased hood heights. See NHTSA[0] for info.

Andrew Gounardes, a NYS senator, attempted to push through a bill that would require additional ‘pedestrian safety’ ratings be posted for vehicles for sale in the state[1]. But otherwise, I don’t know any other state that has any safety ratings for people outside of the vehicles in the US

[0] https://www.nhtsa.gov/ratings

[1] https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2021/S4307

[Dylan16807]

Right but the important thing here is whether they are included in fatalities per 100 million miles driven. And they are.

[MathCodeLove]

As a part-time pedestrian I completely agree.

[throwaway0a5e]

The reporting rate for collisions has gone up which confounds that measurement

Back in the day when costs were lower it was much more common to reconcile things without involving third parties and the legal requirements for max damage in low speed collisions were much more stringent.

[Aeolun]

Being young probably helps them quite a lot if they do get in a crash. I’d like to see the numbers for overall crashes and hospitalizations.

[bjoli]

They also drive a lot less less than the average driver.