Substantial number of people die in traffic-related accidents every year. Among children and youth (age 10–24 years), injuries are the leading cause of death, claiming more lives than any other cause. Adolescents are often thought to be excessive risk-takers, especially in social contexts. In fact, research shows that adolescents, despite having high knowledge of traffic rules, they are likely to violate them. To this end, peer group influence represents a key factor. Adolescents are particularly susceptible to peer influence for several reasons. Firstly, adolescents align their behaviour over time with the norms of their group or the group they want to belong to – a process known as peer socialization. Secondly, adolescents may find it particularly rewarding to gain social status, a potential outcome of aligning with peers. Third, adolescents tend to conform to a group norm (which sometimes means taking a risk) to avoid the social risk of being excluded.

In fact, during 12-15 years teenagers undergo a period of significant cognitive, physical, and emotional development. During this development, teenagers have inhibited risk-based decision-making skills and hightenghted emotional responses and social motivation due to hormonal changes. In this period, teenagers are significantly influenced by peers, while the role of parents as role models decreases, due to an increased focus on social values and peers. Once children reach 16 years of age, they have the opportunity to officially enter the licensing system. At this age, teenagers need to be educated on hazard perception, positive road safety attitudes and recognition of risks such as speed, distraction, alcohol, fatigue and also build cognitive behavioural skills that will enable independent decisions and will resist peer pressure whether as driver, passenger, pedestrian or rider.

Until now, interventions and campaigns aimed at increasing maturity in adolescent behaviour are often unsuccessful because they are adult-led and usually aim at increasing adolescents’ knowledge and awareness of road safety risks without taking into account adolescents’ social contexts, the social influence parametres and developmental socio-emotional characteristics of adolescence which affect their decision-making processes.

Teaching students how to deal with negative peer pressure and empowering them to make safe decisions in the context of commuting (transportation with or without vehicle), and also in other contexts, could be of high importance for reaching more mature decisions and safeguarding their quality of life for their future.

Furthermore, adolescents have been proven that often overestimate their driving ability (e.g. alcohol driving, high-speed driving, distracted driving), while also lacking the skills to avoid difficult social situations (e.g. drink driving after a party) and frequently result to accidents requiring emergency medical attention.