The majority of people killed in teen driver crashes nationwide continue to be people other than teen drivers themselves, according to a new report.

An analysis of 10 years of crash data by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety showed that about one-third of people killed in crashes involving drivers ages 15 to 17 are teen drivers themselves.

That means nearly two-thirds of the victims are passengers, occupants of other vehicles, pedestrians, cyclists and other road users.

"Conventional wisdom tells us that teen drivers are a danger primarily to themselves," said Ragina C. Averella of AAA Mid-Atlantic. "However analysis of the data tells a different story: for every teen driver killed in a crash, almost twice as many other people die."

Nationwide, crashes involving 15-, 16- and 17-year-old drivers between 1998 and 2007 killed 28,138 people. Of that total, 10,388, just under 37 percent, were teen drivers themselves.

The remaining 17,750 deaths included 8,829 passengers of teen drivers, 6,858 occupants of other vehicles operated by adult drivers and 2,063 non-motorists and others, AAA said.

On a positive note, AAA's analysis of National Highway Traffic Safety Administration data showed a drop in both teen driver deaths and a larger drop in deaths of others during the past decade.

That shows that measures to improve teen driver safety benefit all road users, Averella said.

"Clearly, measures put into place during the last decade, such as stronger teen licensing systems and greater parental involvement, have contributed to the reductions in teen driver deaths, and even larger reductions in the number of other people killed," she said.

AAA continues to call for graduated driver licensing systems that enable new teen drivers to gain experience under less-risky conditions. States with such systems have been shown to reduce deaths among 16-year-old drivers by 38 percent, the agency said.