The 100 deadliest days for teen drivers

The 100 deadliest days for teen drivers started on Memorial Day and new Arizona data just released from AAA shows that an average of 14 Arizona teens will be involved in deadly crashes this summer because they have more unstructured time behind the wheel. We talked about all this with Attorney Marc Lamber, of Fennemore-Craig. 

We started off by asking Lamber about this year’s summertime driving for teens.

“I think this year is gonna be worse than other years in fact because so many people have been confined to their homes or been in their respective bubbles because of the pandemic,” Lamber said. “Now that the pandemic has been eased I think you’re gonna see a lot more people on the road.”

Lamber believes that this is because people will want to take more trips and adventures after being stuck inside for so long. He also mentioned that as teens start to come home from college, they won’t be as experienced as drivers.

“For teens, 16 to 19-years old, the number one leading cause of death in our country are car accidents,” Lamber said. “It jumps up to 30 percent during this hundred-day period which is between Memorial Day until Labor Day.”

We mentioned that it’s because school is out and there is along more driving going on, especially highway driving.

“A very significant factor in these crashes is distracted driving and distracted driving is using your cell phone, texting, making a call, when your eyes are not on the road or oftentimes your hand is not on the wheel,” Lamber said.

Lamber went on to explain that about 60 percent of these accidents involve drivers or passengers without seatbelts. For many of the situations when people aren’t wearing their seat belt and they don’t make it, they could have been saved simply by buckling up. Lamber believes it is important for parents to show their kids what safe driving looks like by practicing what they preach.