New York, Dec 19 (AZINS) Parents could be putting their children's lives at risk if they buy them a cheap and old car, say researchers.

Almost half of teenage drivers killed on US roads in the past few years were driving vehicles that were 11 or more years old and often lacked key safety features, the researchers said.

"Given that teenage drivers are more likely to be involved in road traffic collisions than older drivers, it is especially important that they drive vehicles fitted with key safety features, which afford good protection in the event of a crash," explained corresponding author Anne McCartt from Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, Virginia.

The researchers analysed data from the US Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) for 2008-12.

FARS collects information on all vehicle collisions on US public roads that result in at least one death within 30 days of the incident.

Using vehicle information databases, they compared the type, size and age of vehicles driven by 2,420 teenage drivers (15-17 year olds) with those driven by 18,975 middle-aged drivers (35-50 year olds).

Of two-thirds of the teen drivers who died, 29 percent were driving a mini or small car and just over one in three (35 percent) were driving a mid-size or larger car.

The rest were driving pickups (17 percent) and sports utility vehicles, otherwise known as SUVs (17 percent).

"Larger, heavier vehicles generally provide much better crash protection than smaller, lighter ones," they wrote.

"Newer vehicles generally are also more likely to have better crash test ratings and important safety features," the authors added.

The findings appeared online in the journal Injury Prevention.