A recently-released study by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety has substantiated the Federal Highway Safety Administration’s observation that vehicle crashes are the main reason behind the death of teenagers; with the risks of teen driving apparently increasing manifold if there are fellow teenagers in a teen-driven vehicle.

Revealing that teen drivers driving with fellow teen passengers can be quite risky, the study showed that while ‘speed’ is the leading cause of nearly one-third of all fatal car crashes involving teens, the figures witnessed a disquieting rise to approximately 50 percent for teen drivers – aged 16 and 17 years – driving with three or more teenaged passengers.

With the findings of the study clearly showing that ‘the more teens are in the car, the riskier is teen driving,’ the statistics pertaining to teen-driving risks were recently reflected in the car crashes which have been reported of late in the Washington area.

According to the statistics shared in the study – released ahead of the forthcoming Teen Driver Safety week -, fatal car accidents between 2005 and 2010 involved nearly 9,600 teenage drivers, 16 or 17 years old. In addition, the data also revealed that almost 4,000 of the teens involved in the fatal crashes had at least one teen passenger with them.

Asserting the fact that “mixing teen drivers with teen passengers is simply toxic," AAA Mid-Atlantic's John Townsend in a statement that it is imperative that the newly-licensed teen drivers are “not distracted by their fellow teen passengers."