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NOVICE DRIVERS – DARTS MEETING

1/10/2026

VTTI

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In 2023, there were:

5,588 fatalities involving young drivers (ages 15 to 20)

A 5% increase from 2022

339,696 injuries involving young drivers (ages 15-20)

Novice Drivers and Traffic Safety

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Simons-Morton, B., & Ehsani, J. P. (2016). Learning to Drive Safely: Reasonable Expectations and Future Directions for the Learner Period. Safety, 2(4), 20. doi:10.3390/safety2040020.

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Novice Drivers and Safe System Approach

Core Principles

Deaths and serious injuries are unacceptable
Humans make mistakes
Humans are vulnerable
Traffic safety is a shared responsibility
Proactive safety
Redundancy

How do these core principles and tenets apply to the novice driver problem?

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Dr. Johnathon Ehsani - Monitoring and Feedback Systems for Young Drivers: Evidence from a Systematic Review
Ms. Jennifer Zakrajsek - Evaluation of an App-Based Intervention Program for Teen Driver Speeding Mitigation and Intelligent Speed Assist Technology Use: Study Findings
Ms. Yuxi Shen - How Family Support and Driver Education Shape Early Licensure Patterns and Crash Outcomes
Ms. Chidera Ejikeme - Knowledge, Attitudes, and Use of Do Not Disturb (DND) and crash risk amongst high school aged drivers
Dr. Rebecca Robbins - Falling Asleep at the Wheel: Understanding Sleep Attacks and Sleep-related Attentional Failures while Driving in Young Drivers and Associations with Motor Vehicle Crashes, Near Misses, and Nocturnal Sleep
Panel: Challenges in Teen Driving Safety

Dr. Lesheng Hua – Importance of practice driving
Dr. Johnathon Ehsani – Monitoring and Feedback
Dr. John Lenneman – In-vehicle Technologies

DARTS Novice Driver Agenda

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Panel Discussion – Challenges in Novice Driver Research

What countermeasures move the needle to get to zero deaths?
Speakers

Lesheng – Importance of supervised practice driving
Johnathon – Use of monitoring and feedback
John – In-vehicle technologies

Discussion

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Findings of Recent Novice Driver Research

Crash risk is highest right after licensure, then drops fast (CHOP, 2023; Walshe et al., 2023)

Crash risk is highest during the first 6 months of licensure
Teenagers drove frequently, at night, and with passengers (Klauer et al., 2014)
More driving (more miles / hours) can lead to more total crashes (Elvik, 2023)

More supervised learner practice → lower crash/near-crash risk per exposure in the first year of independent driving (Klauer et al., 2025)

Teenagers practiced consistently and had lower abrupt maneuvering rates (Ehsani et al.,2020).
Teens practice in a variety of environments also have improved safety outcomes

Contributing factors to novice CNC rates

Secondary task engagement (e.g., distraction), kinematic risky driving, low stress responsivity, and risky social norms.(Simons-Morton et al., 2015)
Passengers, night driving, speeding, distraction, and belt non-use drive

Male teen drivers consistently show higher fatal crash rates than females (CDC, 2020).

Girls with less driving practice had a higher rate of safety-critical events than boys (Klauer et al., 2025).

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Countermeasures and Questions

Countermeasures:

Cell phone apps that record supervised practice driving may help parents keep track of hours.

Could be requirement from state licensing offices

Strengthen Graduated Driver Licensing (GDL) laws (night & passenger limits, learner requirements) (Foss, Masten, & Martell, 2014)

New Research questions:

Which practice dimension is causal: frequency (distributed practice), variety, duration, coaching quality, or the teen’s underlying risk propensity?
What is the difference between pre- and post-licensure (first-6-month)?
What is the smallest combination of learner-phase exposure (hours × months × contexts) that reliably reduces first-6-month crash risk?
What is the optimal duration and tapering schedule for parental limits/monitoring (e.g., 1, 3, 6 months) to reduce crashes without triggering noncompliance?