Everyone knows that old cars are generally less safe than newer cars, and small vehicles also tend to be less safe than larger ones. Unfortunately, a new study that looked at car crashes of drivers aged 15 to 17 proves that the above phrase has quite a lot of truth to it.

Authored by two researchers from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, the study found nearly half of drivers ages 15 to 17 who died in car crashes from 2008 to 2012 had cars that were at least 11 years old, and nearly a third of them drove small cars. The study chronicled the government’s Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) data from 2008 to 2012 and appeared December 18 in the journal Injury Prevention.

It’s obviously a matter of affordability. Older, smaller cars are less expensive and teens are more likely to drive vehicles like these. Compared to middle-aged drivers killed during the same period, the study found that teens overwhelmingly drive smaller, older vehicles.

Furthermore, the researchers cite a survey of parents in May 2014, according to which some 60 percent of teenagers drive cars at least 8 years old. In the FARS analysis, 82 percent of teens killed traffic accidents drove cars that were at least 6 years old.

Size matters too when it comes to safety, with researchers noting that larger cars result in fewer deaths than smaller vehicles. Both categories (older cars and small cars) analyzed by the study were found thin on safety features by today’s standards.

For example, only 3 percent of teen drivers’ cars had electronic stability control as a standard feature, and just 7 percent of middle-aged drivers’ cars had it standard. 12 percent of the teens’ cars had standard side airbags, compared to 14 percent of the adults’ cars.

Things aren’t likely to change fast, as IIHS notes that it takes about 30 years between the point when the industry introduces a new safety feature and when it can be found in 95 percent of the cars on the road.

Story references: USA Today

Note: Photos from Ford’s Driving Skills for Life teen safe driving program

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