#1Motor vehicle. crashes are the leading cause of death for American teens.

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1 #1Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for American teens. In 2015, 2,333 teens (that s 6 per day) were killed in car accidents and another 221,313 were treated in emergency departments for injuries suffered in crashes. 2015, Center for Disease Control and Prevention

2 #2Cell phones aren t the only distractions. Distractions go beyond texting and talking on the phone to include anything that takes your attention away from driving. - Using a navigation system - Friends in the car - Adjusting car controls - Eating and drinking Put your cell phone away and make adjustments to vehicle controls before beginning to drive or after the car is no longer in motion.

3 #3Crash risk is higher during the first months of getting a license. Driving is a complex skill, one that must be practiced to be learned well. - Practice with a licensed adult on a variety of roads, at different times of day, and in varied weather and traffic conditions. 2014, Insurance Institute for Highway Safety

4 #4Friends are great, but not always in your car. A teen driver with a teen passenger increases the likelihood of having a crash. 55 percent of the deaths of teenage passengers occurred in vehicles driven by another teens. 2015, Institute for Highway Safety

5 #5Accidents are more likely to occur at night. The fatal crash rate of teens is about four times as high at night as it is during the day. 17 percent of teen deaths occurred between 9 p.m. to midnight, followed closely by the time between 6 and 9 p.m. (16 percent). At night, you have less time to see and react. That s why it s good to slow down and be more cautious at night. 2015, Insurance Institute for Highway Safety

6 #6Get your ZZZs! The less sleep the person behind the wheel gets, the higher the crash rate. Drivers who sleep only five or six hours are twice as likely to crash as drivers who get seven hours of sleep or more. One study found that drivers who got only four or five hours of shut-eye had four times the crash rate close to what s seen among drunk drivers. 2016, AAA Foundation

7 #7Seat belts save an estimated 13,941 lives every year. Many understand the lifesaving value of the seat belt the national use rate is just over 90 percent but nearly 27.5 million still don t buckle up. Teens have among the lowest rates of seat belt use. Only 61 percent of high school students say they always wear seat belts. 2015, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and Center for Disease Control

8 #8Excessive speed is a factor in about a third of teens fatal crashes. It probably won t surprise you that younger drivers are more likely to take risks like speeding, tailgating, ignoring signals and stuff like that. 2014, Institute for Highway Safety and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

9 #9It s simple, drinking and driving don t mix. About 4 beers =.08 percent blood alcohol level 17 percent of drivers aged 16 to 20 involved in fatal motor vehicle crashes had a blood alcohol level of.08 percent or higher. 20 percent of teens reported that, within the previous month, they had ridden with a driver who had been drinking alcohol. And 8 percent of students reported having driven after drinking alcohol within the same one-month period. 2014, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

10 #10Put your phone down. Sending or reading a text takes your eyes off the road for 5 seconds. At 55 mph, that s like driving the length of an entire football field with your eyes closed. During daylight hours, approximately 660,000 drivers are using cell phones while driving. That creates enormous potential for accidents. 2015, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration