"Theinsurance sector deserves a great deal of credit for developing aninsurance product that encourages safer driving and delivers fairerpricing," says Graham Gordon with LexisNexis®Risk Solutions. (Shutterstock)

Today marks the beginning of Road Safety Week2018, an international effort to raise awareness aboutdefensive driving and road safety.

In conjunction with the event, LexisNexis® Risk Solutionscompiled research that indicates young-adult drivers who use somekind of insurance-backed telematics device aredramatically less likely to become involved in trafficaccidents.

"Young drivers remain the riskiest drivers on our roads," GrahamGordon, the director of Global Telematics at LexisNexis® RiskSolutions, said in a press release. "The insurance sectordeserves a great deal of credit for developing an insurance productthat encourages safer driving and delivers fairer pricing."

His team's research determined that the number of drivers in theUnited Kingdom age 17-19 who have been killed or seriously injuredin traffic accidents has fallen by 35% since 2011. This ata time when there are more cars on U.K. roads than ever before:LexisNexis® found that the number of vehicles on the roadsincreased 10% between 2011 and 2016, and the number of drivers'licenses issued increased by 7%.

More good news for telematics

Teens may not be the only ones benefiting from telematics insurance.LexisNexis® determined that drivers overall are 16% less likely tobe killed on the road when they use telematics insurance.

"The analysis is exciting because it provides evidencethat telematics has had a real impact on the safety of young drivers and the potentialit therefore offers to improve road safety standards for allmotorists," Gordon continued. "It comes at a time when the cost ofoffering telematics is falling dramatically forthe insurance sector."

LexisNexis® researchers deducted that telematics insurance costsas much as 50% less than it did in 2013.

Adoption of telematics insurance, however, seems to creepingalong as only four in 52 young drivers are currently using it,according to LexisNexis®. What's more, traffic accident casualties among maturedrivers in the U.K. (ages 25-59) has actually inchedup by 4%.

"Four out of 5 consumers are comfortable with the ideaof telematics insurance," Gordon said. "This allpaves the way for more drivers outside of the youngest age group tobenefit from new,customer-friendly telematics policies with thepromise of fair premiums."

Here are some additional findings compiled by LexisNexis® RiskSolutions in conjunction with Road Safety Week 2018:

• Car accidents are the biggest killer ofteenagers, according to the World Health Organization.
• Five hundred people are killed or seriously injured on U.K.roads each week.
• In 2017, 1,793 people were killed on U.K. roads, an average of5 people every day and just under 25,000 people were seriouslyinjured.
• Seventy-three people a day are either killed orseriously injured on U.K. roads. Last year's annual total was thehighest since 2011.9
• Drivers aged 17 to 24 currently make up only 7% of U.K.drivers, but they represent nearly 20% of the people killed orseriously injured in car crashes.
• The 18-25 year old age group make up close to 25% of all autoinsurance claims in the U.K.
• The average claim among the U.K.'s youngest drivers is $5,946(£4625), which is double that for drivers aged 51 to 70.14
• In the U.K., traffic collisions cost the government more than$21 billion (£16.3 billion) each year.

See also: 10 ways driving analytics are affectinginsurance