Summer is a popular time for teens to get driver’s licenses and teen auto accidents cost us around $40.7 billion per year, so the personal-finance website WalletHub today released its report on the Best & Worst States for Teen Drivers in 2024, as well as expert commentary, to identify where teens can enjoy this rite of passage while remaining as safe as possible.

WalletHub compared the 50 states based on 23 key metrics. The data set ranges from the number of teen driver fatalities to the average cost of car repairs to the presence of impaired-driving laws.

Teenage Driving in New York (1=Best; 25=Avg.):

• Overall Rank: 1^st
• 2^nd – Teen Driver Fatalities per 100,000 Teens
• 7^th – Teen DUIs per 100,000 Teens
• 23^rd – Avg. Cost of Car Repairs
• 1^st – Presence of Distracted-Driving/Texting-While-Driving Laws
• 26^th – Premium Increase After Adding Teen Driver to Parent’s Policy
• 1^st – Provision of Teen Driver’s Graduated Licensing Program Laws
• 1^st – Vehicle Miles Traveled per Capita
• 1^st – Presence of Occupant-Protection Laws
• 1^st – Presence of Impaired-Driving Laws

Expert Commentary

What tips do you have for parents of teen drivers?

“Start early. It is important to have frequent conversations with your teen about driving safety even before licensure is ‘right around the corner’. Assuming your teen knows how to be safe is a big mistake. Instead, talk to your teen about how to be safe, what their concerns are about driving safely, and what would get in the way of them being safe. You can think of your role as one of a supportive coach, helping them troubleshoot barriers to safe driving. Think about your own driving and what you are showing and telling your kids about what it means to drive safely as you drive them around before they are even thinking about getting a license. Modeling safe driving behavior goes a long way with your kids. Think about the developmental readiness of your teen when it comes to pursuing licensure. Parents should try to have a good sense of their teen’s readiness to take on the responsibility of driving and be aware of the potential risks that could come their way. This will allow parents to better prepare their teens for what could be challenging for them. Consider the car your teen will drive. If you are considering getting a car for your teen or having them drive your car, assess the crashworthiness or level of crash protection rating that the car has before you have them driving that vehicle. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) both have informative websites where you can put in the year, make, and model of the car and get important crash safety ratings that can help make a smart decision for a vehicle for your teen.”
Jessica Borelli & Federico E. Vaca – Professors, University of California, Irvine
 
“I am only half-joking when I say that one aspect of effective parenting is delaying risky behaviors by your children for as long as possible… To the extent that you can delay it a bit – ideally a year or two so that they are not getting a learner’s permit until they are 17 or 18 - the better it is for everyone. That includes others who are sharing the road with our teen drivers… All the years that you have been driving your children around were also modeling episodes. It is hard to tell in the moment when your kids are paying attention to how you drive, but they absolutely are… if you are modeling distracted driving, speeding, aggressive driving, tailgating, guess what your adolescent is more likely to do when they get the chance? Drive like you want them to drive and point out when you do things to be safe or when you see others driving in ways that are unsafe and explain why. It will absolutely help.”
Ioakim Boutakidis, Ph.D. – Chair, Department of Educational Leadership; Professor, California State University, Fullerton

What is the biggest risk that teen drivers face?

“Teens are not only new at driving, but they may also be less cognitively mature in terms of such skills as keeping their attention on a task and being able to hold information in mind. As a result, they may be challenged in situations that involve lots of complex cues, such as negotiating intersections, knowing how to merge onto highways, driving on wet surfaces, and paying attention to road signs that signal hazards ahead. As they gain more experience, they are more able to handle these situations without taking up a lot of mental effort. Getting trained by a professional driving instructor can increase the chances that such experience is gained before becoming an independent driver. Also, modeling safe driving is important. If you as a parent tend to hold your phone while driving to look for directions or to talk with friends, that will give your teen the impression that it's safe for them as well. In reality, using a phone while driving is a bad idea, but giving your teen the idea that you think it is ok will encourage them to do the same, and they may not be as experienced in handling novel situations as you are.”
Dan Romer, Ph.D. – Research Director, Annenberg Public Policy Center, University of Pennsylvania
 
“It is primarily two things. 1) Teens tend to under-estimate personal risk. It is not an information issue. Teens know that driving can be dangerous. They know that speeding is dangerous. That driving under the influence is dangerous. Unfortunately, they are really good at rationalizing those risks for themselves, personally. They think they are going to be the exception to the rule and that gets them into trouble as we can clearly see from the statistics. Second, teens are more easily distracted because their attentional and self-regulatory skills are not yet fully developed. This is a simple brain biology fact - and there’s not much you can do to address it other than trying our best as parents, as a society, to minimize the conditions under which those limitations lead to bad outcomes.”
Ioakim Boutakidis, Ph.D. – Chair, Department of Educational Leadership; Professor, California State University, Fullerton

What should policymakers do to increase the safety of teen drivers?

“Beyond increasing the age when the process of becoming a licensed driver starts - I would say that adding more behind the wheel requirements that emphasize defensive driving techniques would help. Policies that remove or inhibit distractions is also warranted. While it is true that every state - to my knowledge - has laws that police can enforce regarding distracted driving (e.g. texting while driving), that deterrence has limited effects given the odds of a police officer catching someone in the act. State and federal policies that would compel Apple and Android to further limit texting and internet scrolling while a car is moving past a certain speed would be welcome. As cars become more autonomous, perhaps this will become less of an issue, but we aren’t there yet.”
Ioakim Boutakidis, Ph.D. – Chair, Department of Educational Leadership; Professor, California State University, Fullerton
 
“There is great opportunity and considerable room to improve and optimize state-level Graduated Driving Licensure (GDL) policies that exist and have been proven to save the lives of teen drivers. GDL laws can all be improved to meet the model law standards. Further, alcohol impaired driving remains a major challenge for both teen and adult drivers with again plenty of room for saving more lives through policy revision and improvement. Reducing the national blood alcohol per se law from .08 g/dl to .05 g/dl would save many more lives year after year. From 2019-2022, the number of alcohol-impaired driving crash deaths increased by 33% (10,196 to 13,524 fatalities). Further it is well known that young adult drivers are at high risk of being involved and killed in an alcohol-impaired driving crash. Currently, the state of Utah is the only state that has a blood alcohol per se law of .05 g/dl and when it was first implemented in 2018, Utah saw a reduction in fatal crashes and crash fatality rates of 19.8% and 18.3% respectively in 2019 (the 1^st full year .05 g/dl policy in effect) compared to 2016 in Utah.”
Jessica Borelli & Federico E. Vaca – Professors, University of California, Irvine