100 Deadliest Days for Teen Drivers in Boston 2017 and the Standard of Care

Each year, as millions of Americans celebrate Memorial Day with backyard cookouts and family get-togethers to mark the unofficial start to summer, there is another period we enter known as the “100 Deadliest Days for Teen Driving.”

As discussed in a recent news article from CBS Baltimore, during the roughly 100 days between Memorial Day in May and Labor Day in early September, thousands of traffic fatalities occur each year, and many of these deadly car accidents involve teen drivers.   As we have discussed in previous years, this has been the case for quite some time.  For example, in 2013, more than 371,000 people were injured and around 3,000 people were killed in car accidents during this period alone.As our Boston car accident lawyers can explain, there are a lot of reasons for this.  The first is that that more teens who have just gotten their driver’s licenses are out on the roads than at any other time during the year.  The weather is nice, and teens are out of school.  However, it is not just the number of teens on the road, but their attitudes that often contribute to this annual increase in traffic fatalities.

With immaturity comes a sense of immortality. Many teen drivers do not fully comprehend how serious a traffic accident can be or the likelihood that they will be involved in one.  This creates a fearlessness that is seen in the sometimes reckless manner in which they drive, and this in turn leads to more serious traffic accidents.  As people mature and take on more responsibilities in life, they tend to value life more and do not drive the same as they did when a teenager.  They will also gain more experience on the road, and this will also reduce the number of traffic fatalities.

However, the law in a car accident case involves a negligence action with a standard of care.  The term standard means an objective standard that driver must act as a reasonable and prudent person in the same or similar situation.  One thing that is not taken into account is the driver’s age.  If you drive on the road, whether you are 17 or 70, you are expected to drive in a reasonable and prudent manner so as to prevent foreseeable injuries to foreseeable persons and property.  If a teen driver hits you and is at fault in the accident, he or she cannot simply say that they just learned to drive and are therefore excused from liability.  In other words, there is no lesser standard of care for teen drivers in a serious Boston car accident.

On a positive note, there have been a lot of public awareness campaigns about the dangers of serious car crashes during this time, and, while the problem is far from solved, we have seen a statistically significant reduction in the number of teen traffic fatalities in recent years, so it appears that there is at least some progress being made.

If you are injured in an accident in Massachusetts, call Jeffrey Glassman Injury Lawyers for a free and confidential appointment: (617) 777-7777.

Additional Resources:

Memorial Day Weekend: The Unofficial Start Of The 100 Deadliest Days For Teen Drivers, May 26, 2017,  By Kimberly Eiten CBS Baltimore

More Blog Entries:

Why Do Boston Drivers Hit and Run?, July 3, 2014, Boston Car Accident Lawyer Blog