Garland, Texas – October 23, 2009 --   More crashes involving teenage drivers happen at night than at any other time, but surveys show that young people are unaware of the nighttime danger.  In fact, nearly two-thirds of car crashes involving teens happen between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m.
 
Members of the Garland Youth Council will distribute awareness materials at GISD varsity football games on October 29 and 30. The goal is to make Garland teens more aware of these facts as the fall days become shorter and nighttime hours come earlier.
 
"Nighttime driving is the most common risk for young drivers, but it's the risk that we are least aware of," says Jaywin Malhi, chair of the Garland Youth Council. "Nearly half of our young drivers say they drive at night frequently, but only 1 percent of them understand that driving at night is risky. Since daylight saving time ends soon, that's something we all need to think about."
 
The Garland Youth Council participates in Teens in the Drivers Seat (TDS), a driving safety awareness program sponsored by the Texas Transportation Institute (TTI).  More than 6,000 teens die every year in traffic crashes in the United States – the number one cause of death, by far, for this age group.
Researchers attribute crashes involving teen drivers to inexperience, combined with one or more of the five main risks that plague young drivers: