Teen driver crashes remain leading cause of death for US teens

National Road Safety Foundation, FCCLA teens issue safe driving challenge during National Teen Driver Safety Week

CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) - It’s National Teen Driver Safety Week, and traffic crashes remain the leading killer of U.S. teens, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Crashes involving teen drivers killed more than 2,300 people in 2024, the agency said.

About half of those fatalities were the teen driver or a teenaged passenger.

And, nearly 86,000 teen drivers were injured in vehicle accidents that year.

The National Road Safety Foundation is teaming up with teens from the Family, Career and Community Leaders of America to issue a challenge to teen drivers and their parents. The groups want teen drivers to download the Safe Roads Challenge app.

“Then it’ll track their driving. It’ll track their phone use. It’ll track how their acceleration, their brake speed, if they’re speeding, anything along those lines, and then it’ll give them a report at the end of their driving,” said 17-year-old Brock Romero, of the FCCLA.

He lost his sister in a car accident.

The app scores a driver when they submit a trip and offers entries for gift cards and other prizes to teen drivers as they improve their skills.

Romero is hoping parents will go over the reports the app generates, then make a difference in their communities by driving safer.

There’s also a free online resource for parents of teen drivers, the National Road Safety Foundation’s Passport to Safe Driving.