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Nov 10, 2008 10:40 pm US/Central
Good Question: Why Are Teenage Drivers So Bad?
(WCCO)
It's a right of passage for almost every teenager in Minnesota. When a kid turns 16, it's time to get that first driver's license. But when you combine youth with driving, the results can be deadly. So why are teenagers such bad drivers?
According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, 4,946 teenagers ages 13 to 19 died in motor vehicle crashes in 2007. This is 43 percent fewer than in 1975, and 4 percent fewer than in 2006.
That's the good news. But vehicle crashes continue to be the number one cause of death for teenagers, far outpacing the combined totals for the next three (homicide, suicide and cancer).
In Maple Grove, nearly 200 student leaders from high schools around the state gathered to talk about teenage driving safety. The Minnesota chapter of FCCLA (Family, Career and Community Leaders of America) held a panel discussion on the issue.
"We're not thinking about driving, we're always thinking about next thing we have to do," said one young man.
"We don't have the practice we need," said another.
But an FCCLA teacher/educator pointed out that the problem may be bigger than inattentive driving and inexperience.
"Their brains aren't developmentally ready to make some of the decisions that you need to make as a young driver," said Sandy LaGosh, a Family and Consumer Science educator in Goodhue, Minn.
LaGosh is implementing a curriculum called "Protecting You, Protecting Me." It teaches young people that their brains aren't ready to make logical decisions.
According to the National Institute of Mental Health, the teenage brain is a "Work in Progress." It's a considerable development in neurological research, which once maintained that brain development was essentially complete by the age of 5. Now researchers think the brain's frontal lobe isn't developed until the age of 25.
That causes considerable problems with teenage drivers, who are already facing an uphill battle because of their inexperience.
"The decision making process involving those distractions is the link that's not taking place," said Marcine Elder, another FCCLA instructor.
It also causes problems when alcohol enters the picture, as it does in more than 20 percent of fatal crashes involving teen drivers.
"When you've got a frontal lobe not fully developed, that's the decision making portion, alcohol makes a lot of things a good idea, that really are not. Add that on top of a brain that's not fully developed," explained Julie Zamora, Youth Programs Specialist with Minnesota's Mothers Against Drunk Driving.
As for the problems with teenage drivers, "It is a stereotype, we need to address it, and one of the things is talking about the brain and how it develops in our drivers ed classes," said one teenager.
Areas involved in planning and decision-making, including the prefrontal cortex -- the cognitive or reasoning area of the brain important for controlling impulses and emotions -- appear not to have yet reached adult dimension during the early 20s.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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