Spencer R's Profile

Crash Facts: The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) reports that 3,174 drivers between the ages of 15 and 20 died in motor vehicle crashes in 2007, down 9.1 percent from 3,490 in 2006 and down 5.5 percent from 3,358 in 1997. An additional 252,000 young drivers were injured in 2007.

Thirty-one percent of drivers age 15 to 20 who were killed in motor vehicle crashes in 2007 had been drinking some amount of alcohol; 26 percent were alcohol-impaired, which is defined by a blood alcohol content of 0.08 grams per deciliter or higher.

A 2008 study conducted by former Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) chief scientist Allan Williams found that raising the age at which drivers are licensed would save lives. The study, highlighted in a September 2008 report by the IIHS, focused on driving age and rules in different countries. The study found that raising the driving age would substantially reduce crashes involving teenage drivers in the United States, where most states permit driving at about age 16. Ten states and the District of Columbia start licensing at around 16 ½, 33 at 16 and six between 14 ½ and 15 ½. New Jersey is the only state in which drivers have to be 17 to get a license.

The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and State Farm released a study in 2007 that found that children are safer when riding in a vehicle with a teen driver who is their sibling rather than a teen driver who is not related. Earlier research found that children driven by teens are twice as likely to sustain crash injuries, which prompted legislators in many states to enact passenger restriction laws. The new study showed that children’s risk of crash injury when the teen driver is a sibling is 40 percent lower. Some states allow teen drivers to have only family members as passengers.

If you continue to be concerned
about your teen's driving, you may want to
participate in a monitoring program. Paid services
such as
Report My Teen provide bumper stickers with a call-in number.  If
anyone notices your teen driving dangerously, they
can call the provided number and leave a message
about the incident. After listening to the messages,
you can share your concern with your teen and take
additional steps to prevent reckless driving.

In the aftermath of the Holocaust, many of the survivors found shelter in displaced persons (DP) camps administered by the Allied powers. Between 1948 and 1951, almost 700,000 Jews emigrated to Israel, including 136,000 Jewish displaced persons from Europe. Other Jewish DPs emigrated to the United States and other nations. The last DP camp closed in 1957. The crimes committed during the Holocaust devastated most European Jewish communities and eliminated hundreds of Jewish communities in occupied eastern Europe entirely.