The Driving Habits That Get New Drivers Into Trouble

Most crashes involving newly licensed drivers trace back to a short list of habits: following too closely, misjudging gaps at intersections, driving at the speed limit when conditions call for less, and letting a phone or a car full of friends take a share of attention that the road needed. None are character flaws. They are what driving looks like before enough hours have taught a person to spot trouble early, and each has a specific fix.

The scale of the problem is well documented. According to the CDC, drivers aged 16 to 19 have a higher crash risk than any other age group, and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) reports that per mile driven, teens in that bracket are nearly three times as likely as drivers 20 and older to be in a fatal crash. The risk is highest in the first months after a teen begins driving without supervision.

Space, speed and the car ahead

New drivers judge distance by eye, and at highway speed the gap that looks comfortable is usually too short. A time count works better than a guess. When the car in front passes a sign, an overpass or a lamppost, count the seconds until your own bumper reaches the same spot; state driver manuals commonly recommend at least three seconds in good conditions, with more at night, in rain, or behind a large truck that blocks your view of what is coming. That gap is the time you need to notice brake lights, decide and move your foot, and new drivers need more of it because the noticing takes longer. The same habit of keeping room applies to merging, where hesitating at the end of an on-ramp forces traffic to brake around you. Use the full length of the ramp to reach roughly the speed of traffic, signal early, pick a gap and commit to it. Lingering beside a truck is the other common highway error: if you cannot see the driver's mirrors, the driver cannot see you, so pass steadily or drop back.

Weather shrinks every margin. On wet roads, slow down and double the following count, and if the tires start to skim on standing water, ease off the accelerator and steer gently rather than braking hard. In ice and snow, bridges and overpasses ice over first, and every input (steering, braking, accelerating) should be slower and smaller than feels natural.

Intersections and left turns

Intersections are where inexperience shows most clearly, because they demand judging the speed of a car that is coming straight at you. That skill takes many repetitions to build, and until it is there, new drivers tend to accept gaps that are too small, especially when someone is waiting behind them. The common versions are turning left across oncoming traffic, rolling through a stop sign, and pulling out after looking in only one direction. Come to a full stop behind the line, look left, right and left again, and check the crosswalk you are about to drive through for pedestrians. While waiting to turn left, keep the front wheels pointed straight ahead, so that if someone hits you from behind you are pushed forward rather than into oncoming lanes. And if a gap looks doubtful, let it go. A horn from the car behind costs nothing; a misjudged left turn is one of the more serious crash types for drivers of any age.

Phones, passengers and darkness

Nearly every US state bans texting for all drivers, and many ban holding a phone at all. Graduated driver licensing (GDL) rules in many states go further for new drivers, prohibiting any phone use, including calls through a headset or the car's own speakers. The details differ from state to state, so the DMV site for your state is the place to confirm them. The reliable approach is to set the destination and the music while parked, then switch on Do Not Disturb or the car's driving-focus mode.

Passengers are the quieter risk. The CDC notes that a teen driver's crash risk rises with each additional teen passenger, which is why most GDL programs limit young passengers during the first months of licensing, often to none or one unless an adult is in the car. Night driving gets similar treatment. The fatal crash rate for teens is higher after dark, and most GDL programs restrict late driving for new licensees, with the cutoff hour ranging from early evening to after midnight depending on the state. One small habit helps here: do not trust automatic headlights alone, because on some cars the daytime running lights make the dashboard look lit while the taillights are off.

Practice that continues after the test

A road test proves minimum competence, and most states require 40 to 60 hours of supervised practice, some of it at night, before the permit stage ends. Parents can keep riding along after licensing, particularly on new routes, highways and wet days. One skill worth rehearsing deliberately is the emergency stop. Older advice said to pump the brake to avoid skidding, but that applies to cars without anti-lock brakes, and nearly all modern passenger cars have ABS. For those, NHTSA's guidance is to press the pedal hard, keep it pressed, and steer around the hazard if needed; the pedal may pulse and the car may make a grinding sound, which is the system working, and lifting off or pumping only lengthens the stop. Trying it once at low speed in a large, empty lot, with an experienced adult in the passenger seat, means the sensation will not come as a surprise when it counts.

Parking lots and driveways deserve some of that practice time too. Backup cameras have been required on new US vehicles since May 2018, but they distort distance and can miss a small child standing close to the bumper. Walking around the car before reversing out of a driveway, then checking mirrors and over both shoulders, covers what the camera cannot.

Finally, write the rules down. The CDC publishes a parent-teen driving agreement that turns your state's GDL limits and your family's own expectations (passengers, curfew, phone use) into a checklist both people sign, and it is most useful in the first week of licensing, before habits form.