Accident and injury claims filed by teen drivers spike in the month of October. Nationally, new data by insurer State Farm shows that this is the month in which the accident injury claims filed by 16 to 17-year-olds, increases significantly. Nationwide, the number of injury claims filed by teenagers spike by about 15% in October compared to other months. The insurer looked at data from 2003 to 2009, and this increase was seen every year. In California, October is the second most dangerous month for teen motorists. The highest numbers of accident injury claims are filed by teen motorists in February, followed by October.
There are some reasons why Los Angeles car accident attorneys see more teen car accident claims in October. For one thing, teenagers may be returning to school after the long summer vacation. Besides, the fall season also sees some important events in the high school calendar, including homecoming. At this time of the year, high school students are likely to be very busy with school schedules and extracurricular events, making it more likely that they will be distracted or indulge in dangerous practices, like speeding.
Another survey conducted by State Farm shows that most teenagers are very concerned about the possibility of being involved in an accident, but that doesn’t deter them from indulging in dangerous practices like texting. About 70% of the drivers said getting involved in an accident was foremost on their minds, but 56% percent of the teenagers admitted to texting while driving. It appears that staying connected is more important to this generation of American motorists than for others, in spite of the evidence showing that texting while driving increases the risk of an accident.
Besides, it appears that we haven’t yet been able to do a good job of making the link between texting while driving and accidents as clear to teen motorists, as we have been able to do with drunk driving and accidents.
