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There have been eight people killed in automobile accidents in the local area this year and four of them were age 20 or under.

That is not a surprise to experts in the field who say young people are four times more likely to be involved in a crash as the rest of the population. In fact, 40 percent of deaths for people age 15 to 20 are the result of collisions, according to the Center for Disease Control.

The shame, police and experts said, is that the near epidemic of fatalities in accidents nationally is largely preventable.

Young drivers, they said, are too inexperienced, too easily distracted, more often drunk and are much more likely than adults not to be wearing seat belts.

Just buckling up would make a big difference. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said 68 percent of the young people killed in accidents in 2006 were not wearing belt seats. The problem is especially pronounced after dark when seat belt use declines even more.

"Seat belt use among young drivers and occupants is not what it should be, especially at night when the risk of dying in a crash triples," Nicole Nash, administrator of the agency, said in a statement.

David Hanson, a sociology professor at the University of New York at Potsdam, has made a career of studying automobile accident data.

He said the biggest problem with young drivers is that they are just too inexperienced. They have not had enough time behind the wheel to be able to handle many situations.

Then there is the reputation young people have for risk taking and their tendency to talk on the cell phone, text message and generally get distracted that contributes to accidents.

Hanson said a person talking on a cell phone while driving is more likely to get into an accident than a person who is driving while legally drunk.

But, alcohol is still a huge factor.

In 2005, 16 percent of teens who died in crash had been drinking, according to the federal agency.

Police have not said what contributed to the crashes of the four local young women who died over the past three months, but what is unusual is that so many of them were girls.

Last week, Alexa Latteo, 19, of Norton and Debra Davis, 20, of Milton died when Latteo's car hit a tree in Wrentham. Another passenger of the vehcile, Nina Houlihan, 20, of Norton was injured in the crash. In June, 18-year-old Jacklyn Thomas died on a crash on Mechanic Street in Foxboro.

Last May, 17-year-old Rebeckha Whitefield also died when her car hit a tree on Oak Hill Avenue in Attleboro.

Attleboro Police Chief Richard Pierce said the string of deaths of young women appears to be a coincidence and not a trend as far as he can see.

"I think it is just a freak thing. There doesn't seem to be a rhyme or reason to it," he said.

Statistics seem to bear him out.

The Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles said there were 10 fatalities for females age 16 through 20 in both 2006 and 2007. Data is still being collected for this year.

One problem area is the rise of females involved in drunk driving, Hanson said.

He said males in accidents are twice as likely to have been drinking, but drunk-driving arrests of females has risen steadily over the past two decades.

Mansfield Police Chief Arthur O'Neill said he did not want to comment on the recent accidents because they happened outside his jurisdiction and he does not know all the details.

However, he said the problem of underage drinking in general is getting worse and more than ever it involves extremely young girls.

"The last four years with the girls, it's gotten crazy. I'm talking young, young girls," he said.

O'Neill said parents have to take a stronger role in disciplining their children to make sure they do not drink or drive irresponsibly.

He said there are some parents who actually provide their children with alcohol.

"Too many people think it is just good kids having fun. Well, good kids die," he said.

Drinking and driving aside, Hanson said one of the worst things parents can do is let their teen drive with other teens.

He said the passengers are not only distracting, but they often encourage speeding.

Goran Antunovic, manager of Labonte Auto School, said the state junior driver law prohibits new drivers from having passengers other than family members.

The junior operator law has a number of useful measures to discourage irresponsible driving, such as steep fines and suspensions for speeding, but the law need strict enforcement to be effective, he said.

He said when there is a fatal accident in the news, his instructors talk about it with their students and emphasize what went wrong and how it could have been prevented.

"We tell them a vehicle can be a deadly weapon," he said.