Crash involvement of teenaged drivers when driver education is eliminated from high school.

In 1976, Connecticut eliminated state funding for high school driver education and nine school systems dropped the courses from their high school curricula. This research examined the effect of this action on overall licensure of 16-17 year old drivers in communities that dropped the course to those in similar sized communities that retained the driver education course using local funds. Substantial reductions in the numbers of 16-17 year olds who became licensed occurred in the communities that dropped the course. As a result, the numbers of crashes involving 16-17 year olds resident in such communities were also substantially reduced. The conclusion of previously reported research that high school driver education is a major contributor to earlier licensure and accompanying crash involvement of the 16-17 year old population is supported by this additional evidence.