Teen Driver Safety | Traffic Safety Marketing

A teen’s inexperience behind the wheel makes them more susceptible to crashes, so including teen safety messaging in a traffic safety communication plan is important. Specific risk factors for teens behind the wheel include: alcohol and drug use, not wearing a seat belt, distracted driving, additional passengers, speeding, and drowsy driving.

Many communication resources on this page come in two versions, one speaking to the teen driver and the other speaking to their parents. Also, many assets are available in English and Spanish. Share this information with partner organizations to help spread the message across communities.

Teen Driver Safety Week is October 19–25, 2025 – a good opportunity to increase safety messaging across all platforms.

Facts

Teen driving facts, stats and reports from NHTSA's National Center for Statistics and Analysis

Get More Facts

Traffic crashes are a leading cause of death for teens (15-18 years old) in the United States.
In 2023, a total of 2,611 people were killed in traffic crashes that involved a teen (15-18 years old) driver, and 822 of those killed were the teen driver.
Of the 2,611 people killed in crashes involving a teen (15-18 years old) driver, 604 were the passengers of a teen driver.
- 377 (62%) of those fatalities were other teens riding with a teen driver.
- Of those teen passengers killed while riding with another teen driver, 67% were male and 33% were female.
In 2023 there were 87,074 teen (15-18 years old) drivers injured in traffic crashes.

For facts translated in Spanish, visit NHTSA.gov/Espanol.

Teen Driver Safety Week

Teen Driver Safety Week is October 19-25, 2025, and you'll see increased communication related to teen driving. You can use any of the material available on this page to increase your messaging.

Also, sample news releases can be downloaded and used during Teen Driver Safety Week.

Social Media

We created two social media playbooks — one for a teen audience and another for the parents of a teen. The playbooks contain sample social media content in English and Spanish. Download these guide for instructions on posting the below playbook graphics to Facebook and X. The content is designed for easy posting and seamless integration into your current social media strategy.

Also, additional sample social media posts, in English and Spanish, are available for download. Images often help boost the engagement of social posts. Our image library, linked below in the Resource section, has a variety of images that you can associate with these sample social media posts.