Dissimilar teen crash rates in two neighboring southeastern Virginia cities with different high school start times

STUDY OBJECTIVES: Early high school start times may contribute to insufficient sleep leading to increased teen crash rate. Virginia Beach (VB) and Chesapeake are adjacent, demographically similar cities. VB high schools start 75-80 minutes earlier than Chesapeake's. We hypothesized that VB teens would manifest a higher crash rate than Chesapeake teens. METHODS: The Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) provided de-identified, aggregate 2008 and 2007 data for weekday crashes and crash times in VB and Chesapeake for drivers aged 16-18 years ("teens"), and provided 2008 and 2007 crash data for all drivers. Data allowed comparisons of VB versus Chesapeake crash rates for teens (overall and hour-by-hour), and teens versus all other ages. We compared AM and PM traffic congestion (peak hours) in the two cities. RESULTS: In 2008, there were 12,916 and 8,459 Virginia Beach and Chesapeake 16- to 18-year-old drivers, respectively. For VB and Chesapeake, teen drivers' crash rates in 2008 were 65.8/1000 and 46.6/1000 (p Language: en