The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced earlier this month that the percentage of high school teenagers who drink and drive dropped dramatically over the last decade. According to the report, more than two million high school teens drank alcohol and drove in 2001 whereas nearly one million high school teens did the same in 2011.
While the number of reported incidents dropped by 54 percent, the one million teens who continue to drink and drive isn’t a number to celebrate. The CDC report noted that teen drivers are three times more likely than experienced drivers to be involved in a fatal crash, and alcohol simply increases those risks exponentially. Furthermore, 1 in 5 teen drivers involved in crashes in 2010 had some alcohol in their system with 81% of those having blood alcohol contents higher than the legal limit for adults (.08% or higher).
A state-by-state analysis was developed from the Youth Risk Behavior Surveys of 2011 to determine key major problem states with youth drivers and alcohol use. While Pennsylvania data was unavailable along with several other states (mostly in the west), the neighboring states of Ohio, Maryland, Delaware and New Jersey reported an average of 10 percent of their teen population had gotten behind the wheel of a car after drinking alcohol. New York, Virginia and West Virginia reported approximately 7.5 percent drinking and driving rates among teens.
With approximately 25 million teens living in the United States, 5 percent of them still subscribe the drinking and driving. Therefore, since the height of the holiday parties is approaching, drinking will become more commonplace as well drinking and driving.
Research has shown that there are several steps that families and communities can take to reduce teenage drinking and driving rates.
1. Parental Involvement: A parent-teen driving agreement has been known to work to reduce drinking and driving rates among teenagers. This agreement basically lays out the “rules of the road” and if disobeyed, consequences are enforced. A sample Parent-Teen Driving Contract can be found at www.cdc.gov/ParentsAreTheKey.
2. Graduated Driver Licensing System: This type of system helps new drivers get more experiences slowly. As teens move through stages, they gain privileges such as driving at night or driving with passengers. Every state’s rules are different. In Pennsylvania, a new license holder is not allowed to operate a motor vehicle between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. and the number of passengers may not exceed the number of seatbelts in a vehicle. The restrictions lift after the age of 18. Details can be found at the Governor’s Highway Safety Association’s website at www.ghsa.org.
3. Zero Tolerance Laws. Every state, it is illegal for those under age 21 to drink after ANY alcohol use. Research has shown that these laws have significantly reduced teen drinking and driving crashes.
4. Minimum Legal Drinking Age. It is illegal to sell alcohol to anyone under the age of 21. Such MLDA laws coupled with retailer compliance checks have drastically cut illegal sales of alcohol to minors.
References:
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2012). Parent-teen driving contract. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/ParentsAreTheKey/pdf/Parent_Teen_Driving_Agreement-a.pdf.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2012). Teen drinking and driving. A dangerous mix. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/vitalsigns/TeenDrinkingAndDriving/index.html.
Governor’s Highway Safety Organization. (2012). Graduated driver licensing (GDL) laws. Retrieved from
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