Purpose: The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) collects and publishes annual state-based counts of licensed drivers, which have been used to estimate per-driver crash rates and document a decline in young licensed drivers. The accuracy of these data has been questioned.
Methods: We compared the number of young licensed drivers as reported by the FHWA (2006-2012) with that generated directly from New Jersey (NJ) administrative licensing data. Census data were used to estimate the proportion of NJ adolescents who were licensed.
Results: FHWA data showed a decline in the proportion of licensed 17- to 20-year olds over the 7-year period (77%-63%), whereas analysis of NJ licensing data revealed a more stable trend (75%-74%).
Conclusions: We advise against use of FHWA licensing data for research purposes and encourage FHWA to work with state licensing agencies to review and enhance data collection and quality control procedures with the goal of ensuring the accuracy of licensing data.
Keywords: Adolescent driver; Graduated driver licensing; Motor vehicle crashes; Teen driver; Teen driving.
Copyright © 2014 Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.