TEEN DRINKING ABUSE MAGAZINE & DRIVING
Teenage Drunk Driving Statistics
In recent times , drinking and driving has become a serious issue among teenagers in the United States . In order to drive safely , a person has to be alert , capable to make decisions based of incidents happening around and execute them . This coordination while driving becomes difficult , especially under the influence of alcohol .
Alcohol leads to loss of coordination , poor judgment , slowing down of reflexes and distortion of vision , all of which invariably lead to an accident . The statistics related to alcohol and driving indeed depict a gruesome picture about the entire phenomenon .
The statistics of drunk driving compiled by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration , U . S . Department of Transportation , produce some staggering facts about drunk driving . Out of 12,998 drinking driving fatalities in the United States 1,393 were caused due to teen drinking and driving . About 28 % of teenagers killed in motor vehicle crashes were drinking either before or while they were driving . Most of the drivers forget to use their seat belts after consuming alcohol . Around 64 % of teenagers who were involved in fatal drunk driving crashes were reportedly not wearing their seat belts . The study rates motor vehicle crashes as the leading cause of deaths among teenagers . It also reported that the fatalities caused by teens drinking and driving constituted 40 % of all alcohol-related fatalities in the United States .
Drinking and driving statistics , compiled by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention ( CDC ), showed that more than half of the drunk driving accidents involving teenagers were reported on either Friday , Saturday or Sunday . It also showed that about half of these accidents occurred between 3:00 pm and 12:00 am . According to the studies done by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety , young people are less likely to drive after drinking , but when they do they are more likely to end up crashing as they are drunk and relatively inexperienced in driving .
Since 1875 , an estimated 24,560 lives have been saved due to implementation of the minimum drinking age . The legal age has been changed several times and fluctuated between 18 and 22 . The current minimum age for purchasing or consuming alcohol is 21 , which was implemented by all the 50 states of the United States of America in July 1988 . Drunk driving stats confirm that increasing the age led to reduction in the number of accidents caused by teens drinking and driving . According to the zero tolerance law , it is illegal for any person below the age of 21 to drive with 0.02 percent or greater blood alcohol content ( BAC ). A study done in 12 states of the United States of America reported that the proportion of fatal accidents reduced by 20 % after these states passed the zero tolerance law .
In some people , alcohol triggers the overconfidence of being able to handle anything , while for some others , allowing or encouraging a drunk person to drive means sheer fun . Driving safety is something that just goes out of the window when under the influence . Statistics of teen drunk driving suggest that a teenage boy with BAC levels of 0.05 percent is 18 times more vulnerable to crash his vehicle than a teenage boy who hasn ’ t consumed alcohol . In girls , this vulnerability increases to 54 times over her non-drinking counterpart .
On behalf of the administration , initiatives like sobriety checkpoints and legislation like zero tolerance laws have been introduced . Organizations such as Students Against Drunk Driving and Mothers Against Drunk Driving have been actively spreading awareness about the hazards of drinking and driving . Though all these efforts have decreased the number of casualties caused by teenage drunk driving , the numbers depicted in the latest statistics are still very frightening . The need of the hour is to completely curb this social menace , which is something that threatens the lives of our young loved ones .
By Abhijit NaikLast Updated : 9 / 22 / 2011
Source : www . buzzle . com / articles / teen-drinking-and-driving-factsteenage-drunk-driving-statistics . html abusemagazine . org | Illinois Winter 2014 | 19