Want to know how likely it is that someone will get into an accident? Forget about checking their age. Just look at how much experience they have.
This does often correlate with age. The initial age at which most drivers get a license and go out on the road alone is 16. This means that many drivers without experience are also very young, and it has led to the belief that young people are poor drivers. Looking at teen crash rates seems to support this, as they’re higher than they should be for such a small percentage of the population.
The real trouble, though, is the lack of experience. When looking at those teen accidents, this factor is cited as the main reason that they happen.
The trouble with inexperience is that it leads to a lot of other types of errors. For instance, a driver may enter a turn too fast, not realizing that they need to slow down more, and roll their car. Excessive speed technically caused that accident, but the excessive speed came about because of the lack of experience. A driver who had been on the road for five years would have a better idea of how much they needed to slow down, and they could avoid such a crash.
Of course, the natural problem here is that you cannot get teens more experience driving alone without simply letting them drive alone. As they gain experience, they are going to cause car accidents. Other drivers and passengers who get injured need to know all of the options they have to seek compensation.
