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Area 1st In Fatal Teen Crashes

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By KEITH MORELLI

kmorelli@tampatrib.com

Published: December 4, 2008

TAMPA - With winter break fast approaching, some timely and sobering news was delivered Wednesday to local teens: Tampa Bay area roads are the deadliest in the nation for young drivers during the holidays.

Jacksonville ranked second and Orlando third in a report released by Allstate Insurance. Using federal crash statistics and insurance claims from the past eight holiday seasons, Allstate listed the 50 most dangerous metro areas for teens behind the wheel.

The Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater region topped the list. Also in the top 10: Kansas City, Mo.; Birmingham, Ala.; Phoenix; Las Vegas; Oklahoma City; Louisville, Ky.; and Richmond, Va.

The safest spots: Salt Lake City, San Francisco and Cleveland.

It's also not just the holidays. Insurance statistics issued last month showed the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater area as having the highest rate of fatal crashes involving teens (41.5 crashes a year, per 100,000 teenagers) out of the nation's 100 largest metro cities from 2000 to 2006.

The federal government says vehicle crashes are the No. 1 killer of teens.

In the Bay area, more than a dozen teens have died in wrecks this year, including a recent spate of crashes that killed a 19-year-old woman in east Hillsborough County and a 17-year-old high school student and 19-year-old nurse in Pasco County.

"Large metro areas, like New York or Washington, D.C., you would think would have more crashes, but they are lower on the list," said Amy Moore, a spokeswoman for Allstate's St. Petersburg office.

"In Tampa, Orlando and Jacksonville, the busing systems and public transportation, in general, is not quite evolved as in those cities," she said.

The Bay area also sprawls into suburbia.

"Our city centers are not very big," Moore said. "There are a lot of outskirts and rural areas and a lot of teens drive in those areas and that's where the accidents occur."

Bruce Murakami of St. Petersburg knows the grief of a crash. In November 1998, his wife, Cindy, and 11-year-old daughter, Chelsea, were killed in a wreck caused by drag-racing Justin Cabezas, then 19.

Since then, Murakami has immersed himself in the issue, starting the nonprofit organization Safe Teen Driver. He and Cabezas travel the nation lecturing teens on safe driving.

"This doesn't surprise me," Murakami said of Allstate's report. "It breaks my heart to hear that.

"Kids need more education; more real time behind the wheel," he said. "Driver's education programs in high school have been cut over the years. They may not even exist anymore."

Tampa police Officer Randy Davis, who runs the Teen Scene Driving Academy, said driver's education courses in public schools aren't always adequate.

"Hillsborough County has one of the best driver's education programs in the country," he said. "The problem is the number of teens in the program. There are 40 kids per class and that limits the driving time so much. Instructors are frustrated."

Davis said there are probably many factors in the Bay area's dubious honor.

"No. 1 is there is a tremendous amount of traffic in Tampa," he said. "We also have so many teens on the highways here, and they're taking unnecessary risks when they get into their cars. For some reason, our teens tend to be big-time risk-takers. It's the only thing I can figure out."

It's no secret why teens generally get into wrecks.

"Technology has created so many distractions for these kids," Davis said. "This generation is all about texting, cell phones and iPods, and they all are distractions when driving.

"Factor in that teens are teens and they like to have a good time," he said. "What they forget when they get into their cars is that they need to concentrate on what they are doing."

Davis said the chances of a teen driver getting into a wreck increase dramatically with the number of teen passengers.

Under a proposed state bill, drivers younger than 18 who have had their license for less than six months would be prohibited from carrying passengers younger than 18, unless they are a sibling or child of the driver.

Linda Unfried, spokeswoman for the Hillsborough chapter of MADD, said young drivers must be educated before getting their licenses.

"This is very scary," she said. "I think we need to get to them when they are young and change attitudes about drinking and driving, even as early as kindergarten."

TEEN CRASHES

Among the Bay area fatal crashes involving teenagers from Thanksgiving through New Year's Day since 2004:

•Dec. 16, 2004: Teenage brothers Tony and Danny Duong are killed when one loses control of their father's Acura and the car slams into a tree in the Countryway subdivision of Hillsborough County.

•Dec. 27, 2004: Leroy J. Lunsford, 18, of St. Petersburg, is killed when the driver of the car he is in loses control of the vehicle, which strikes a tree and flips, ejecting both of them. The crash is in St. Petersburg.

•Dec. 27, 2005: Kyla Gamble, 16, of Plant City, dies when she loses control of a 1997 pickup on a curve on Knights-Griffin Road. Gamble, who is not wearing a seat belt, is thrown from the truck when it flips several times.

•Dec. 14, 2006: Kevin Metz, 17, of Wesley Chapel, is killed and two others are injured in a single-car crash on County Line Road in Pasco County. Metz loses control of his car after it drifts off the road.

•Nov. 28, 2007: David B. Osteen, 18, and Rebecca McCann, 16, of Land O' Lakes, are killed and a third person is injured when a tire separates and two vehicles collide on Handcart Road in San Antonio.

Research by Michael Messano

SAFE DRIVING

The Teen Scene Driving Academy offers two days of intensive, hands-on driving instruction for teens. Each session costs about $400 and is open to 20 students. The next session is the weekend of Dec. 27; classes are held at Tampa Bay Technical High School.

For information, call (813) 541-2982 or go to www.teen

scenedriving.com.

Reporter Keith Morelli can be reached at (813) 259-7760.

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