Klauer and her team compared the results of a one-year, 100-car study with drivers between 18 and 72 years of age with an average of 20 years' experience and an 18-month study of 42 teens who had drivers' licenses for less than three weeks.

Participants from both studies drove vehicles outfitted with data acquisition systems, including cameras and a suite of sensors which collected continuous video and driving performance data for the duration of both studies.

A secondary task was considered a contributing factor to any crash or near-crash event if it occurred within five seconds prior to or within one second after the event, said the study.

The data revealed that compared to experienced drivers, novice drivers engaged in secondary tasks less frequently during the first six months.

However, they matched experienced drivers between months seven and 15, and were engaged in non-driving tasks more often than experienced drivers during months 16 through 18 - a two-fold increase in risky distractions during the last three months of the study.

“Newly-licensed novice drivers are of course at a particularly high crash risk, in part because driving is a complicated task and novices tend to make more mistakes when learning a new task,” said Klauer.

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