Summer see the biggest influx of teen drivers. New York was rated as the best state for teen drivers.

Summer’s here and that means more teenagers will be getting their driver’s licenses that at any point during the year. The impact of teens on the road will be felt less in New York than any other state, according to a new study.

The Empire State has the best combination factors for newly minted teen drivers to be safe and successful behind the wheel, claims WalletHub.com. South Dakota finished at the bottom of the list.

Motor-vehicle accidents continue to be the leading cause of death among people between the ages of 16 and 19, the age group with the highest risk of crashes and during the summer an average of 250 teens will die behind the wheel.

The website compared the driving conditions for teens in the 50 U.S. states based on 16 key metrics. The data is broken down into categories that examine the safety conditions, economic environment and driving laws of each state.

For example, states with a substantive graduated licensing program, like New York, fared well in that category. In fact, it was in the top six in all three categories.

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Aside from New York, the rest of the top 10 included, in order:

• Oregon
• Massachusetts
• Hawaii
• Delaware
• Illinois
• Connecticut
• Nevada
• Rhode Island
• New Jersey

Missouri, Wyoming, North Dakota and Montana joined South Dakota in the bottom five of the list. The survey also accounted for factors such as the lowest rate of teen fatalities (Connecticut), lowest rate of teen DUIs (Alabama), lowest average cost of auto repairs (Nebraska) and the lowest insurance premium increase for adding a teen driver (Hawaii).

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Some of the other stats pulled from the research:

• There are 11 times more teen driver fatalities per 100,000 teens in North Dakota than in Connecticut.
• The percentage of major roads that are in poor condition is 10 times higher in California than in Nebraska.
• The increase in auto insurance premium after adding a teen driver to a policy is seven times higher in New Hampshire than in Hawaii.
• The number of vehicle miles traveled per capita is two times higher in Wyoming than in New York.
• Alabama, Arizona, Mississippi, Nebraska and South Dakota are the states that lack most of the optimal teen driver’s Graduated Driver Licensing (GDL) provisions, each with two or fewer of the seven provisions.

While the aforementioned items influence the environment teens will face when they get behind the wheel alone, there are other inputs that effect what kind of driver they will be in that arena.

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“Parents need to understand they are the number one influencer of their teen’s driving attitude and behavior,” said Kelly Browning, executive director, Impact Teen Drivers. “Teens have been sitting next to or behind their parents for at least 15 years – they have been watching and listening to everything their parents do behind the wheel.”