Over 6,000 teen car crashes happened in Idaho, 40 of them deadly

TWIN FALLS, Idaho (KMVT/KSVT) — This week kicks off “National Teen Driver Safety Week,” and young drivers are more likely to get into a crash, according to data from the Idaho Department of Transportation.

“A lot of the crashes that we see involved teens that are in groups, like they’re out with friends,” said Idaho State Police Sgt. Benjamin Foster.

Foster said a growing road problem is that younger drivers are getting into crashes.

Last year, more than 6,000 teen crashes happened in our state, the highest level in five years, with 40 of them being deadly, according to the Idaho Transportation Department. Just this week, another teen’s life was claimed in a crash in Gooding County.

“The Idaho State Police did investigate a fatal crash involving an 18-year-old, this individual was not wearing their seat belt and was ejected from their vehicle and succumbed to their injuries due to this crash,” Foster said.

Foster said the cause of the crash is still under investigation. The Twin Falls Sheriff’s Office is seeing an ongoing issue on its roads.

“Some of the statistics that we’re seeing is that cellphones are really taking a major play in the causing of collisions, it’s almost as significant as driving under the influence of alcohol or other intoxicants or drugs, but what it really comes down to is a lot of teens don’t put their seat belt on which results into a lot of ejections,” Corporal Schramm said.

To help prevent crashes, especially during National Teen Driver Safety Week, AAA-Idaho has some important reminders.

“You want to make sure your passengers aren’t distracting. Just like when you don’t want to drive while paying attention to your phone, you also don’t want to have things too rowdy in the car,” AAA-Idaho Public Affairs Director Matthew Conde said. “You want to insist on everybody wearing their seat belts, you want to make sure you get plenty of sleep.”

As winter approaches, AAA also recommends that parents take teens out to practice driving in bad weather before letting them do it independently.

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