By Alyssa Bredefeld

In 2022, teen drivers accounted for 9.1 percent of all motor vehicle accidents, with 3,212 fatal crashes among teens ages 16 to 19. This elevated crash rate is attributed to risky driving behavior, such as speeding, use of handheld cellphones, rapid accelerations, and abrupt braking. These behaviors are further exacerbated by peer pressure. When driving with a peer in the car, the risk of an accident is dramatically increased. According to the American Psychological Association, the teenage brain has a heightened sensitivity to rewards, making teens more likely to engage in risk-taking. Psychiatrist Jay N. Giedd of the National Institutes of Health explains that “brains don’t fully develop until age 25 and that teenagers tend to depend on the part of the brain that mediates fear and other gut reactions, the amygdala, when making decisions.” 

Despite the known dangers of teenage driving, the Department of Labor reports that one of the most common child labor violations is allowing minors to operate or assist with motor vehicles. This type of work is prohibited under Hazardous Occupations Order No. 2 (HO 2). An exception is made for 17-year-olds who may drive on the job if certain criteria are met: driving during daylight hours, holding a valid state license, and spending no more than 20% of their work time behind the wheel. This order is in place to reduce the risk of serious injury or death among working minors. 

With the return of the Trump administration and the appointment of Lori Chavez-DeRemer as Secretary of Labor, Project 2025’s proposal to allow minors to engage in hazardous work may become a reality. The initiative stated that teens want to do hazardous jobs and urged the Department of Labor to “amend its hazard-order regulations to permit teenage workers access to work in regulated jobs”. This could lead to the reversal of Order HO 2, allowing teens under the age of 17 to drive at work. Protections that prevent minors from driving at night could also be removed, despite data showing that most teen accidents occur during nighttime hours. Several widely cited studies have indicated that minors who work over 20 hours a week have lower academic performance and an increased risk of dropping out. Removing limits that restrict driving hours could increase driver fatigue and harm educational progress.  

Project 2025 fails to consider that although children may be attracted to dangerous jobs, their understanding of the risks and consequences associated with a job is often skewed. If this order is reversed, we can expect an increase in preventable death and injury among children behind the wheel. 

This push to weaken protections comes at a time when child labor violations are already on the rise and investigators severely understaffed. In 2024, the Department of Labor found 4,030 children employed in violation of labor laws — a number that excludes thousands of violations that go unreported every year. Child labor has a long historical significance in the United States, but since the introduction of the Fair Labor Standards Act in 1938, the country has made improvements in barring children from exploitative labor. If protections are overturned, it will be even more difficult to understand the harm caused by hazardous labor, as these instances will no longer be classified as violations. The U.S. is dangerously close to backsliding into the past. Let’s leave occupational driving to adults and keep our teenagers safe 

Sources  

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2926992/ 

https://www.consumeraffairs.com/insurance/teen-driving-statistics.html 

https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/fact-sheets/34-child-labor-motor-vehicles 

https://www.apa.org/monitor/julaug04/brain 

https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/data 

https://static.heritage.org/project2025/2025_MandateForLeadership_FULL.pdf 

 Alyssa Bredefeld is a 2025 summer intern. She is currently studying Allied Health Sciences and Human Rights at the University of Connecticut.