Six thousand American teenagers die each year behind the wheel--a number that hasn't budged in a decade, but that stands to rise as a baby boomlet of kids arrives at the magic driving age of 16. The typical reaction from parents is a tragic shrug. There's nothing that can be done about it.
There are many reasons that explain why kids get killed more porpotionately than adults, inexperience behind the wheel being only one of them. Brain immaturity, especially the part that weighs risk and isn't fully developed until about age 26, has been recently proven to have some culpability. But a study from the Allstate Foundation has found that parents bear more responsibility than they acknowledge. The study showed that parents begin talking to their kids about the dangers of smoking before wee ones reach the age of 12. But only about 27 percent of parents talk to their kids about safe driving until they're already enrolled in driver's education.
What other responsibilities to parents bear? Read after the jump.
Other findings from the study show:
Eighty-nine percent of teens said their parents are influential in encouraging safer driving.
Forty-four percent of teens said they drive more safely without friends in the car. Statistics back this up--especially when the friend is male.
Sixty-seven percent of teens refuse to speak up when they feel unsafe with someone else at the wheel. Blame peer pressure.
More than half of all teens answer phone calls while driving.
Most teens consider their own driving safe, while 63 percent describe the driving of their peers as aggressive or reckless.
More than half of all teens think that alcohol is the responsible for teen-related fatalities. In fact, alcohol is involved in only about 25 percent of deadly teen crashes.
