A terrible tragedy along SR-52 in San Diego. 2 teens from Santee were tossed from a vehicle when it flipped after hitting the center median separating eastbound and westbound traffic.
The vehicle flipped while in a high speed race reaching speeds of over 100 miles per hour, according to witnesses. According to the San Diego Union Tribune:
The dead have been identified as 16-year-old Jayli James Campbell, a student at Santana High School in Santee, and Anthony Foreman, 18, of Santee, according to the Medical Examiner’s Office.
The occupants of both vehicles were friends from high school, and had just returned from a party at the beach in La Jolla, California. Nothing happened to the other. The vehicle that flipped was a Volkswagen Passat, and both teens that were killed were in the backseat. It is unclear if they wore a seatbelt. A third passenger also in the backseat was not killed, but suffered serious injury. The front passenger also suffered serious injury; the driver was treated for minor injuries.
The crash was so severe the front bumper dislodged and the rear axle was cleanly taken off the vehicle.
Teenage driving is such an important topic, that must be discussed between parents and teen drivers. The greatest risk of death among drivers, is among teenage drivers. Driving is the #1 killer of teens. This is a terrible statistic, and parents must do as much as they can to try and instill in their children these risks. Ultimately, it is up to the teens to act responsibly when they get behind the wheel, but we must do as much as we can to help them do so.
The DMV as a website specifically targeted towards teenage drivers.
And they list the biggest risk factors in crashes among teenage drivers.
Teenage Driver Crash Risk Factors
The traffic accident rates for 16- to 19-year old drivers are higher than those for any other age group. What causes teenage drivers to be such risky drivers? The following is a list of their primary risk factors.
Poor hazard detection
The ability to detect hazards in the driving environment depends upon perceptual and information-gathering skills and involves properly identifying stimuli as potential threats. It takes time for young novice drivers to acquire this ability.
Low risk perception
Risk perception involves subjectively assessing the degree of threat posed by a hazard and one’s ability to deal with the threat. Young novice drivers tend to underestimate the crash risk in hazardous situations and overestimate their ability to avoid the threats they identify.
Risk Taking
Teenagers tend to take more risks while driving partly due to their overconfidence in their driving abilities. Young novice drivers are more likely to engage in risky behaviors like speeding, tailgating, running red lights, violating traffic signs and signals, making illegal turns, passing dangerously, and failure to yield to pedestrians.
Not wearing seat belts
Teenagers tend to wear safety belts less often than older drivers. Why?
Lack of skill
Novice teenage drivers have not yet completely mastered basic vehicle handling skills and safe-driving knowledge they need to drive safely.
Alcohol and drugs
Driving under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs is a common cause of serious crashes, especially fatal ones, involving teenage drivers. Teenagers who drink and drive are at much greater risk of serious crashes than are older drivers with equal concentrations of alcohol in their blood.
Carrying passengers
For teenagers, the risk of being in a crash increases when they transport passengers-the fatality risk of drivers aged 16-17 years is 3.6 times higher when they are driving with passengers than when they are driving alone, and the relative risk of a fatal crash increases as the number of passengers increases. Passengers who are age peers may distract the teen drivers and encourage them to take more risks, especially for young males riding with young male drivers.
Night driving
The per mile crash rate for teenaged drivers is 3 times higher after 9:00 pm during the day. This is because the task of driving at night is more difficult; they have less experience driving at night than during the day; they are more sleep deprived, and/or because teenage recreational driving, which often involves alcohol, is more likely to occur at night.
One can only imagine what the families of the two victims are going through. Heart felt condolences go out to them.
