This week is Teen Driving Safety Week in California. Throughout the week, law enforcement groups, parents, teenagers, and teachers and the IMPACT Teen Driver's Campaign have been holding activities to promote safe driving among teenagers.
Considering that teen drivers get more tickets and are killed and injured in larger numbers than any other driver demographic, this initiative is necessary. Some common causes of teen driver accidents:
• Drunk driving
• Distracted driving, including texting, talking on the cell phone, and chatting with other passengers
• Driving under the influence
• Speeding
• Driver inexperience
• Lack of driving skill
• Low risk perception
• Poor hazard detection
• Drugged driving
• Driving at night
Also, it doesn't help that teenagers are less likely than adult drivers to wear their seat belts.
When teen drivers engage in negligent or careless driving, they place themselves and others at risk of serious injury or death. Just last February, 17-year-old Brent Sirignano sustained catastrophic injuries when the 2006 Scion he was a passenger in, driven by 17-year-old Parker Kalmen, crashed into a tree. Both teens are from Lake Forest.
Sirignano had to be placed into a medically induced coma following the Mission Viejo car accident and he has had to undergo multiple surgeries. It wasn't until this week that he was brought out of the coma and transferred out of the critical-care unit. Today, police are confirming that Kalmen's blood test results show that there was THC in his system when the collision happened.
Pot drug found in teen driver's blood, Orange County-Register, March 26, 2010
Teen Driving Safety Week, DMV.ca.gov
Related Web Resources:
Teen Drivers, NHTSA
Teen Drivers, CDC
Negligent teen drivers are not immune from the criminal and legal consequences that can arise in the event that they do cause Orange County, California wrongful death or personal injury.
Contact our Anaheim personal injury law firm today.
