Nationwide, young drivers are involved in 15 percent of all crashes, but in Texas that number soars to 22 percent. That's why some Central Texas High School students got together Tuesday morning to promote "Teens in the Driver Seat."

Five hundred Texas teens die in automobile crashes every year, including one in South Austin just last month -- 6,000 die nationwide. It's the reason some Central Texas students wore the number 6,000 on their shirts as they relayed their own vehicular close calls.

"Their trailer caught the front end of my car and flipped us around into a ditch," said Danielle Gauna, Vista Ridge high school senior.

"I had to slam on my brakes and I almost fishtailed off the road," said Jake Rutledge, Vista Ridge high school senior.

Those are just two real life experiences that explain why students from Mason and Vista Ridge high schools are the first in Central Texas to get behind "Teens in the Driver Seat," the nation's first peer to peer safety program for young drivers.

In a public service announcement a young teen is heard saying, "Here's a message for you, cell phones and driving are deadly."

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"Teens in the Driver Seat" urges young people to be safe behind the wheel.

The PSA will soon air in Austin, and not a minute too soon for some older, more experienced drivers like Don Bynum.

"I'll look up and I'll see a young driver and a lot of times they'll be on their cell phone talking to their friends, or doing about three or four different things and trying to drive at the same time," he said.

"Every place they go 90 miles per hour with their hair on fire," said Garry Parker, DPS senior trooper.

Parker believes the peer to peer premise may be the way to convince teenage drivers they're all not nine feet tall and bulletproof.

"They don't understand the difference between this bullet right here and that bullet right there is about 37 hundred pounds. Both of them are very deadly," Parker said.

Tabitha Vant is just a sophomore and doesn't even have her license yet. But she says seeing at least five teens from her small town of Mason either die or get seriously injured is why she's already taken an active role in "Teens in the Driver Seat."

"Such a small town and yet so many tragedies and when it is a small town it impacts you more because you feel you're closer to them," Vant said.

As dangerous as drinking and driving is, studies show only 12 percent of all teen crashes are alcohol related. That means almost 90 percent of the fatal crashes involving teens are due to things such as, speeding, not wearing seat belts, and talking or texting on the cell phones.

The "Teens in the Driver Seat" program is funded by the Texas Department of Transportation.