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December 12, 2007
Each year, nearly 6,000 American teenagers die in car accidents involving teenage drivers, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, according to the New York Times, and more than 300,000 are injured.
The cost, in property damage and health care expenses, is $14 billion. The economic fallout will come as no surprise to anyone who has had to insure a male driver under 21.
Driving in the digital age has presented added worries. The cellphone owned by the 17-year-old girl who crossed the median into an oncoming tractor-trailer in one of this year’s most horrific teenage accidents was found to be texting just before impact. It is not known which of the five girls who died in the fiery collision near Rochester was using it.
“Nobody would want to see the crash photos I’ve collected,” said Ralph Miro, Trauma/E.M.S. coordinator for Waterbury Hospital in Connecticut. In 24 years as a paramedic, he has assisted at the worst roadside carnage.
The relentlessness of the slaughter and grief compelled him in 1998 to start a statewide driver education program aimed at high school students called the Hard Truth. Presented with the help of volunteers from Mothers Against Drunk Driving, Mr. Miro’s road show, with its graphic accident scene and emergency-room slides and heart-rending testimony from victims and offenders, is heavily booked all over Connecticut — especially during prom season.
Posted by Peter C. T. Elsworth 
at 5:09 PM to Safety
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