Car accidents are a daily occurrence that can be catastrophic, and newly-minted teen drivers aged 16 to 19 have the greatest risk of all age groups. 33% of teenage drivers will have a car accident within their first year of driving and 36% of all teen deaths are caused by car accidents. Parents can only do so much to help their teens so lawmakers across the nation are mandating numerous restrictions on teenage motorists to help curb the high rate of their car crashes. These laws are extensive and cover many situations including placing limits on the hours during which teens are legally allowed to drive and placing limitations on the number of passenger's new teen drivers can chauffer. California teens under 18 must drive with a provisional license for a full year before they may have an unrestricted license. Under a provisional driver's license teenagers must drive only when accompanied by an adult from 6:00 AM to 10:00 PM and may not transport anyone under the age of 20.

Teenagers cannot help the fact that they are inexperienced and have a tendency to feel immortal and invulnerable to danger, so these restrictions are reasonable, as teenagers have accidents 4 times more than drivers over 20 years old. These restrictions are also based on evidence; the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety documented that changing the minimum licensing age to 16 and 1/2 from 16 created a 7% fatal crash reduction rat, found that banning teen passengers reduced fatalities by 21% and reported an 18% reduction of teen accident deaths when teens were not allowed to driver after 9PM.

Teenagers are also highly susceptible to the dangers of distracted driving, particularly distractions from cell phone usage and texting. At Virginia Tech Transportation Institute the National Highway Safety Transportation Administration conducted a 2006 study that identified cell phones as the leading cause of driver distraction and text messaging is even worse. 1.5 million property damage claims, over 300,000 injuries and over 2500 deaths are caused each year by distracted driving, according to the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis.

Based on the evidence of the studies and the high rates of teen vehicle accidents, 21 different states and the District of Columbia have banned all cell phone usage, including text messaging by new drivers and an additional 9 states have banned only text messaging for the same group.

Lack of experience increases risk, yet the only way to gain experience is to drive. Nothing can fully bridge the gap between experienced drivers and novice motorists, but parents can provide extra instruction and set a good example for their teenage drivers and lawmakers can ban the activities prove likeliest to cause teen accidents. Between the two hopefully the growing rates of teen crashes will diminish.