A report has been released on 2017’s Best and Worst States for Teen Drivers.
The 50 U.S. states were compared using 21 key metrics, such as ‘most teen DUIs’, ‘teen driver fatalities’, ‘average gas prices’, ‘average cost of car repairs’ and ‘premium after adding teen driver to parent’s auto insurance’. The report also took into account the presence of teen driving laws, such as occupant-protection laws, impaired driving laws, distracted driving/texting while driving laws and the provision of a Graduated Driver Licensing (GDL) program.
In order, the top three states were found to be New York, Oregon and Illinois. Purely focusing on safety the top three states, in order, were New York, Maryland and Ohio.
The report was conducted by personal-finance website WalletHub.
Commenting on the findings, WalletHub Analyst, Jill Gonzalez said: “The leading cause of death among 16- to 19-year-olds is motor-vehicle accidents. However, teen vehicle fatality rates vastly differ from state to state.
“That doesn’t necessarily come as a surprise, since driving laws also significantly vary. For instance, Washington, Oregon, New York and Illinois have at least 5 of the 7 major Graduated Driver-Licensing program laws, while Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota and North Dakota only have one, if any at all.
“The Graduated Driver-Licensing program laws in question are: minimum age of 16 for learner’s permit, 6-month holding period, 30-50 hours supervised driving, night time driving restriction, passenger restriction, cell phone restriction, and unrestricted license at age 18. These should be standard nationwide if we really want to combat our teen driver death rates.”
View the report on the WalletHub website.
