Annual summertime focus: Here come the teen drivers

Behind the wheel, judgment and focus are everything.

Unsurprisingly, and from a collective standpoint, teen drivers in California and nationally flatly lack those attributes.

The numbers don’t lie.

Here are a few things to ponder, which convey the type of driving-related statistical information that fills more mature drivers with trepidation, if not outright dread.

Just consider this. A study finding from the respected Pew Research Center posits that well more than half of America’s teens text daily, averaging a whopping 80 communications every 24 hours.

Now, with that in mind, mull this conclusion from a transportation institute: Texting while driving increases accident risks monumentally, in fact, by a factor of 23.

It’s no wonder that seasoned drivers on the road tend to perk up and pay closest scrutiny to any nearby vehicle that they know contains teenage occupants.

The dire accident numbers are really no value judgment regarding the nation’s youngest drivers. It’s no secret that teenagers are, well, fledgling adults with growing brains. As such, they are works in progress, and temporary lapses in judgment, well, happen.

Unfortunately, they are often deadly when they occur on streets and highways and when teens are behind the wheel. A study authored by the transportation group AAA terms the period from Memorial Day to the time that teens return to school — simply think summer — as the “100 deadliest days.”

That ominous depiction is, tragically, apt. A lot of teen motorists are driving around during that time, and a lot of people are dying as a result. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration notes that, over that timeframe in recent years, more than 10 people have died daily in crashes involving teen drivers.

It’s now summer, and teen motorists are out in force. It is incumbent upon other drivers to duly heed them and, when possible, help them to cultivate the judgment that is an imperative for safe driving.