From the logging roads of the Pacific Northwest to the farmland of the Great Plains and beyond, it’s not uncommon for rural people to learn to drive when they are young, sometimes even before they reach their teens.
But news that a 13-year-old was behind the wheel of a pickup truck that blew up a tire and hit a van on a dark two-lane road in West Texas on Tuesday night, killing nine people — including six members of a New York City’s golf teams. Mexico College and their coach are putting a renewed focus on practice.
At a news conference in Odessa, Texas, on Thursday, Bruce Landsberg, vice chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, said the dangers of underage driving put it on the agency’s “most wanted list.”
In addition to drink-driving and drink-driving, Landsberg said “youthful driving” and overspeeding on rural roads are among the problems that make highway driving the most dangerous form of transportation in the United States.
“Every two days we kill the equivalent of a Boeing 737 crashing down,” he said, citing road deaths from multiple causes. “It’s high time we do something about it.”
REGULATORY DRIVING AGE VARIES BY STATE
Cash Hogen, a 60-year-old who runs a kitchen and home improvement store in Pierre, South Dakota, recalls learning to drive a Ford Bronco “as soon as my feet hit the pedals” — probably around age 10. across his family’s ranch in western South Dakota to repair barbed wire fences or for other tasks.
But his father always emphasized safety around vehicles and told stories of horrific tragedies in order to dispel the danger.
“Under no circumstances would I go out on a public road without my student’s permit,” he said.
While it is legal for people of any age to drive on private property, such as farms or ranches, the public road where others are at risk is another matter, said William Van Tassel, the manager of driver training programs for AAA’s national office.
Every U.S. state has some sort of graduate driver’s license program, which allows teens as young as 14 to begin taking driving lessons or start driving with an instructor or guardian, he said. Eventually they gain more independence and are allowed to drive alone or at night, until they have full privileges.
“Certainly in rural areas there is a general trend of lower minimum ages for driving,” says Van Tassel. “We see that many teenage drivers have driving experience by the time they enter formal driver training, having driven trucks or tractors or other vehicles on the farm. But when it comes to public roads, the laws are pretty clear: you can’t be there until you’re legally eligible.”
According to data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, there were 47 fatalities and 1,057 injury crashes in 2020 involving drivers 13 years of age or younger.
In 2019, the death rate per 100 million vehicle kilometers traveled was 1.9 times higher in rural areas than in urban areas.
PERMIAN BASIN SEEMS HEAVY TRAFFIC ON RURAL ROADS
The cause of Tuesday’s crash in Andrews County, Texas, near the New Mexico border, was not clear, but federal authorities said on Thursday the 13-year-old was driving a Dodge pickup truck on a road with a 75-speed speed limit. mph when his left front tire, a spare tire, broke.
The truck swerved across the centerline into an oncoming van carrying the golf team from the University of the Southwest, in Hobbs, New Mexico. The boy and a man in the truck with him were killed, along with members of the golf teams and their coach.
Though the area is rural, the surrounding oil fields of the Permian Basin that runs from western Texas to New Mexico mean traffic can be anything but, local residents said.
Gib Stevens, 57, of Hobbs, heads transportation operations for an oilfield service company. He said he himself started driving trucks on dairy farms and quiet agricultural roads at the age of 12, but he said the road where the accident happened was clearly unsafe.
“For a 13-year-old to drive on that road, that was stupid,” Stevens said. “These roads are all oil traffic.”
‘WORST CASE SCENARIO’ IN TEXAS CRASH
In Texas, one must be 14 to begin classroom instruction for a student license and 15 to receive that provisional license to drive the vehicle with an instructor or licensed adult. Department of Public Security Sgt. Victor Taylor said it would be illegal for a 13-year-old to drive on public roads.
Van Tassel noted that the accident involved several risk factors in addition to the driver’s youth: It happened at night and on a road with a high speed limit when the spare wheel exploded.
Furthermore, teenage boys are one of “the most dangerous segments” of motorists across the country, said Cathy Chase, president of the Washington, D.C.-based Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety.
“This is a worst-case scenario, on top of a worst-case scenario, on top of a worst-case scenario,” Chase said.
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Johnson reported from Seattle. AP writers Jake Bleiberg in Dallas and Cedar Attanasio in Hobbs, New Mexico contributed.
