Let me say first that in this post, when I refer to “driver’s ed,” I am referring to all types of teen driver training and education, whether provided by parents, other licensed drivers, high schools, or commercial driving schools.

Parents who delve into the voluminous research about what is and is not effective in reducing crash rates among teen drivers will find this very confusing conclusion:  there is no statistical evidence showing that driver education reduces crash rates among teen drivers.  Federal highway safety agencies, state motor vehicle departments, insurance company associations, and university transportation institutes that have researched this issue have all reached the same conclusion.

So, does this research mean that parents are wasting their money, and teens are wasting their time, when they enroll in driver’s ed to learn how to operate a car safely?  The answer is certainly no – but embedded in this seemingly contradictory answer is a critical reality about safe teen driving and, in fact, one of the central points of this blog.

Obviously, teens need to learn the rules of the road, how to operate a car safely, and how to drive defensively.  Without question, the more hours they spend behind the wheel receiving supervised training, the better drivers they will be when they begin driving solo.  The research and the data absolutely do not imply that we should not train teen drivers thoroughly before licensing them.

The problem is that no amount of driver education can overcome the three reasons why “There Is No Such Thing As A Safe Teen Driver” (see my September 15, 2009 post with this title).  First, biologically, the brains of teenagers have not developed to the point where they fully appreciate risk and danger.  Second, not even hundreds of hours of driver training can provide teen drivers with the judgment necessary to anticipate and avoid unsafe situations (and, across the United States, the typical driver training hours required for licensure ranges from approximately 20 to 100).  Driving judgment takes years.  Third, we train drivers in our local towns and neighborhoods but when they are licensed, they routinely drive on roads they have never driven before, so that they are learning to drive while trying to follow directions – a skill that can confound the most experienced adult driver.

Thus, driver’s ed does not reduce crash rates because it does not and cannot overcome the principal reasons that teens have higher crash rates.  Driver’s ed makes teen driving safer, but not safe.  Driver training somewhat reduces the risks of teen driving (though research has been unable to quantify the benefit), but by no means does it reduce them to a level that parents can rely on as guaranteeing safety.

The research demonstrating a lack of correlation between driver’s education and reduced teen driver crash rates does not mean that commercial driving schools and other driver’s education programs are unnecessary.  The data, however, provide the clear lesson that parents should not assume that a teen who has taken driver’s ed, passed with flying colors, and will now be a law-abiding driver will arrive safe and sound at each future destination.

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