AAA Chicago released an analysis Wednesday of crashes involving teen drivers, a problem that Mike Cline knows firsthand, even though he has never seen the data.
Cline’s son, Michael, 16, was killed about 4:45 p.m. Feb. 16 in Fox Lake after the car he was driving hit a patch of black ice on a bridge over a channel of the Fox River and slid into oncoming traffic.
The American Automobile Association found that nearly as many 16- and 17-year-old drivers were involved in fatal crashes nationwide between 3 and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday as were on Friday and Saturday nights between 9 p.m. and 2 a.m.
Friday and Saturday nights are considered the deadliest time for teen drivers and the AAA analysis reinforces that trend. But it also underscores the sometimes overlooked fact that driving to and from school and afternoon driving in general is especially dangerous for new teen drivers.
AAA examined the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s fatal crash numbers involving 16- and 17-year-old drivers between 2002 and 2005. A total of 1,100 fatal crashes involving those drivers occurred on weekday afternoons during those years; 1,237 fatal crashes involving 16- and 17-year-old drivers occurred on Friday and Saturday nights over the same years.
“Parents are right to be worried about their novice teen drivers being on the road during the high-risk evening and late night hours,” AAA Chicago spokeswoman Beth Mosher said Wednesday in a prepared statement. “But parents also need to be engaged in their teens’ driving activities during the after-school hours.”
Michael Cline Jr., of unincorporated Grant Township in Lake County, had picked up a friend and was driving to another friend’s house when his car slid from the northbound lanes of U.S. Highway 12 into the southbound lanes and was struck by a car traveling south. Cline, who was wearing a seatbelt, was killed immediately, according to testimony at his inquest.
The crash cut short the life of a high school sophomore who was handy like his father, a wood carpenter. The oldest of two children, the teen had talked about his dream of becoming a pilot, but also was considering a career as a mechanic, his father said.
Michael Cline Jr. paid for his gasoline and his car insurance with earnings from his job as a bus boy at a Fox Lake restaurant, his father said.
“He was always humble,” Mike Cline said. “He was a second-degree black belt in tae kwon do, but you’d never know it. Everybody loved him.”
Anne McCartt, vice president for research at the Virginia-based Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, said after-school driving and before-school driving are dangerous for teen drivers primarily because many teens are on the road at those times, logging lots of miles.
AAA Chicago recommends that parents be “as diligent in monitoring their teens’ afternoon driving as they would be on a Friday or Saturday night.” Those recommendations include prohibiting other teens from riding with the new driver for at least three months, banning cell-phone use and creating a parent-teen agreement.
“It’s a logical thing to focus on,” McCartt said of AAA Chicago’s analysis of after-school driving, “but it’s maybe a little tougher to deal with than night driving.”
Families see driving to and from school and other afternoon driving by teens as more crucial to maintaining a smooth routine, she said.
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tgregory@tribune.com
TEENS AT THE WHEEL
The Tribune is putting a spotlight on the dangers of teen driving. For the series so far, go to chicagotribune. com/teendrivers
