California's cost was calculated based on 66,785 crashes that occurred in2006, which included 177 fatalities and 27,869 injuries.

"The impact of a teen crash goes beyond individual and family tragedies andphysical injury in the crash aftermath, with costs that can extend toemployers, families, the government and society," said the Automobile Clubof Southern California Manager for Government Affairs Steve Finnegan."These figures provide important reasons for legislators to improvegraduated driver licensing in their states -- a proven measure to reducethe deadly toll of teen driver crashes."

Comprehensive graduated driver licensing (GDL) systems ease teens intodriving through a combination of greater driving practice and limitingexposure to risky driving conditions for teens such as driving at night andwith peer passengers. Comprehensive GDL systems have been shown to reducefatal crashes involving teen drivers by an average of 38 percent in statesthat have implemented the program. The Auto Club and AAA are leadingadvocates for teen driver safety issues. The Auto Club and its northernCalifornia counterpart co-sponsored California's 1998 GDL legislation. Thelaw was enhanced in 2006.

"The new analysis adds to the body of work done previously that showed teendriver safety can continue to be improved," said Auto Club seniorresearcher Steven A. Bloch, Ph.D. He added that California's graduateddriver licensing system, one of the first programs implemented in the U.S.,could be enhanced further by upgrading enforcement so that citations couldbe issued to teens for violating the GDL law (primary enforcement),increasing sanctions for GDL violations and requiring a clean drivingrecord before receiving a full license.

According to the analysis conducted by the Pacific Institute for Researchand Evaluation (PIRE) for AAA, drivers ages 15 to 17 in 2006 were involvedin about 974,000 crashes nationwide, injuring 406,427 persons and killing2,541.

The $34.4 billion cost in 2006 included $9.8 billion from fatal crashes.The average cost was $3.8 million per fatality. Injury crashes averaged$50,512, with their large numbers producing a total cost of $20.5 billion-- more than twice the $9.8 billion cost of fatal crashes. Property damagecrashes accounted for the remaining $4.1 billion.

"Some of these costs are paid directly by government through Medicaid,police, paramedics and courts. Many other costs -- like lost wages,traffic delay and reduced quality of life -- don't show up directly, butalso reflect the very large, very real cost of crashes involving teendrivers," said Bloch. "States that improve their graduated driverlicensing programs will reduce crashes, injuries, and deaths for road usersof all ages and reduce crash-related costs that are paid by the state,too."

During the first two years after 16-year-olds were fully licensed under theCalifornia GDL law, teen passenger deaths and injuries when 16-year-oldswere behind the wheel declined 40 percent statewide and 47 percent in LosAngeles County, according to an Auto Club analysis. Also, the number offatal and injury crashes in which 16-year-old drivers were at fault dropped24 percent, the analysis found.

It's estimated that California's passenger restriction prevented nearly 700deaths and injuries statewide in the first three years after the GoldenState's GDL law took effect. An important reason for this reduction wasthat the number of teen passengers carried by 16-year-old drivers declinedby an estimated 25 percent after the law took effect, according to an AAAanalysis. The same analysis showed that teen drivers with passengers weresignificantly more at risk of causing a crash than solo teen drivers.

A typical three-stage GDL program comprises a learner stage, during whichall driving must be supervised; followed by an intermediate stage, duringwhich unsupervised driving is permitted except under certain conditions(such as at night or with passengers); and finally full, unrestrictedlicensure.

The cost of teen crashes was calculated using modeling that researchers atPIRE have used for economic analysis for the National Highway TrafficSafety Administration. The analysis draws upon a broad range of databasesand research involving crashes, injury types and medical costs.