Startling Statistics About Teen Safety

By Dr. Marciene Mattleman

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- A teen struggled to walk a straight line but she was wearing "binge drinking goggles,"  vision glasses that simulate drunken driving at the recent National Teen Driving Summit. The gathering of teens from 22 states in Alexandria, Va. was aimed to highlight distracted driving, which results in drunken, drugged and drowsy driving injuring drivers, passengers and those on the street.

A variety of simulations made the issue real; startling statistics revealed that car crashes are the number one killer of teens in the U.S.  In 2013, 2,163 teens were killed in motor vehicle incidents -- six teens, 16 to 19 died every day.

In an article by Faiz Siddiqui, Monday, October 19th,in The Washington Post, reporting on the summit, there is testimony from kids about texting while driving and personal stories about close shaves bringing this important issue to public attention.