Teen Driver Safety Week: What New NHTSA Numbers and Illinois Rules Mean for DuPage Families
This is National Teen Driver Safety Week, which runs October 18 through 24, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is using it to push parents to talk with new drivers about the habits that matter most. If you have a teenager with a permit or a fresh license somewhere between Naperville and Glen Ellyn, the federal numbers and the Illinois rules below are worth a few minutes at the kitchen table.
What NHTSA’s 2024 numbers show
- The overall toll: 2,320 people were killed in crashes involving a teen driver (ages 15 to 18) in 2024, and 752 of the people who died were teen drivers themselves.
- Seat belts: 51 percent of teen passenger vehicle drivers who died in 2024 were not buckled up.
- Speed: Speeding was a factor for 33 percent of the teen passenger vehicle drivers involved in fatal crashes in 2024.
- Alcohol: 22 percent of teen drivers involved in fatal crashes in 2024 had been drinking, even though the legal drinking age is 21 in every state.
- Distraction: NHTSA says about 10 percent of teen drivers involved in fatal crashes in recent years were distracted at the time, and it suggests teens turn on their phone’s “do not disturb” feature before driving.
NHTSA’s message to parents is blunt: “Your Teen Is in the Driver’s Seat, but You’re in Control.” The agency also notes that graduated driver licensing (GDL) systems can cut a teen’s crash risk by as much as 50 percent.
The Illinois rules your teen is driving under
Illinois runs its own GDL program through the Secretary of State. A few of the rules that come up most often in family conversations:
- Permit phase: The permit must be held for at least nine months, with a minimum of 50 hours of supervised practice, including 10 hours at night.
- Night limits: Permit holders and drivers under 18 face nighttime restrictions from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. Sunday through Thursday, and 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. Friday and Saturday. Local curfews may differ.
- Passengers: For the first 12 months of licensing, or until the driver turns 18, a new driver may carry only one passenger under age 20, unless the passengers are siblings, stepsiblings, children or stepchildren.
- Phones: Drivers under 19 may not use a cell phone while driving, even hands-free, except in an emergency. Texting while driving is prohibited.
- Seat belts: All occupants must wear a safety belt.
The Secretary of State also offers a Parent Teen Driving Guide and Contract, and parents of permit holders and graduated license holders under 18 can check their teen’s driving record online for free.
What this means for you
Here’s our take: not every new-driver mistake is serious. A misjudged pole in a parking lot, a bump while backing out of the driveway or a door that swings into the car next to it can happen to anyone. Those small moments are a good time to reinforce the bigger habits NHTSA is talking about.
- Make the rules concrete. Buckle up every trip, phone on do not disturb, follow the speed limit, and stick to the Illinois passenger and night limits. Writing them into a parent-teen contract makes them easier to enforce.
- Practice the hard parts. Parking lots, tight driveways and backing up are where a lot of minor damage happens. Use some of those 50 practice hours there.
- Don’t hide the small stuff. If your teen comes home with a dent, have it looked at. A dent where the paint is still intact is often a candidate for paintless dent repair, which reshapes the metal without sanding or repainting. Scrapes and cracked paint usually need dent and scratch repair instead. An inspection decides which fits.
- Check your policy. Adding a teen driver and handling a claim both depend on your own policy, so talk with your insurer about how a repair would be handled.
Our team at EZ Tech Paintless Dent Removal & Collision repairs everything from parking-lot dings to collision damage across Chicagoland, and we’re happy to show your family what we find and walk you through your options. This article is general information, not legal or insurance advice.
Sources: NHTSA, “Parents: Talk to Your Teen Driver About Safe Driving” (National Teen Driver Safety Week, October 18–24, 2026); NHTSA, “Teen Safe Driving”; Illinois Secretary of State, “Graduated Driver’s License.” All accessed October 21, 2026.
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