ABSTRACT
For teenage drivers, driving is often perceived as a means of socializing, and young drivers are more likely than older drivers to a) have passengers and b) have a greater number of passengers per trip (Shope & Bingham, 2008). The presence of passengers is a key factor implicated in the crash rate of drivers under 21 years old (Bedard & Meyers, 2004), and it appears to be the presence of same-age passengers that is most risky. Collision data shows that young drivers are most at risk when accompanied by teenage passengers (particularly male passengers); and their crash risk is much reduced in the presence of adult passengers (Ouimet et al, 2010). Driving with peer passengers is a factor consistently implicated in young drivers’ over-representation in collisions (Doherty, Andrey & MacGregor, 1998), and recently researchers have focused on understanding why peer passengers increase the crash risk for young drivers.
