A new study of young drivers in the United States demonstrated a link between those who performed poorly on tests for short-term working memory and the likelihood of them causing a wreck within the first few years after becoming licensed.
Dangers of Teen Driving
It has long been known that teen drivers are some of the most dangerous drivers on the road, explaining the high costs of insuring these drivers. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 2,433 teenagers in the U.S. aged 16 to 19 were killed in motor vehicle accidents in 2016, making automotive collisions the number one reason for teen deaths. Another 292,742 teens suffered serious injuries in motor vehicle accidents in the same year that required treatment from an emergency department. Additionally, more than half of children between the ages of 8 to 17 who die in automotive collisions are in vehicles driven by someone younger than 20. The total cost of motor vehicle injuries stemming from teen occupants was $13.6 billion in 2016.
According to the CDC, the risk of automotive collisions is greater for teens aged 16 to 19 years old than for any other age group. This age group is almost three times more likely to be in a fatal wreck than drivers aged 20 and older.
Teen drivers are more likely to underestimate dangerous driving conditions or make critical errors in decision-making when driving than older drivers. Additionally, they are more likely to engage in dangerous driving behaviors than older drivers, such as drinking and driving, speeding, texting and driving or following other vehicles too closely. They are also much less likely to wear seat belts when compared with other age groups.
Motor vehicle accidents are more likely when any of the following situations apply:
- A male teen is driving
- A teen drives on the weekend
- A teen drives at night
- Teen drivers have teen passengers in the vehicle
- A teen drives within the first few months of acquiring their license
About the Study
Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania are familiar with the dangers of teen driving and looked to see if a development issue may be at play. They believed that the brains of some teenagers may not be developed enough to handle the responsibility of driving. One key statistic points to 20-year-old drivers with equal driving experience to 17-year-olds are less likely to be involved in a crash, which suggested that older drivers may be more mentally developed than their younger counterparts. The researchers believed the difference may be due to disparity in the drivers’ working memory.
Driving involves working memory, which requires the brain to process information that happened in the preceding minutes and to use this information to make critical decisions. Drivers must process multiple pieces of information at the same time, such as their speed, information from road signs and directions from GPS systems while trying to avoid colliding with anything. For many teens, working memory is still being developed.
Research tracked risky driving behavior in youths between the ages of 10 to 20 between 2004 and 2014 through using the Philadelphia Trajectory Study. They also assessed the crash history of 84 of these study participants who had began driving. About one-quarter of these participants had been in at least one collision. The study measured working memory by showing a stream of images and getting participants to recall the order of images.
The study is published in the journal JAMA Network Open.
Study Findings
The study authors found that participants who had lower gains in working memory were significantly more likely to be involved in a collision within the first three years of them getting their driver’s license.
The study authors suggest conducting routine memory testing of teens to determine who are not yet equipped to handle the responsibilities of driving. The authors suggest giving teens with poorer working memories additional training, such as in a driving simulator.
