A recent AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety study found that 88% of Americans aged 19-24 admitted to texting while driving, speeding, or running red lights in the 30 days prior to answering the survey questions.
Unfortunately, its not just the millennials who are guilty of engaging in these dangerous behaviors. And these behaviors have serious consequences. Traffic deaths on US highways rose by 7% in the year 2015. People killed on roadways within the United States totaled 35,092 in 2015 alone.
In a time when manufacturers are touting innovative safety features such as airbags, anti-lock brakes, traction control, electronic stability control, and accident avoidance systems highway fatalities should be decreasing not increasing, so what is happening?
Driver Behavior and Attitude
When participants of the AAA Foundation survey were asked if they believe their dangerous driving behavior is acceptable, an overwhelming majority said “yes”. Either young drivers are not aware of the risks of such behavior or believe they are the exception to the rule.
Having grown up in a “speed” culture, I’m inclined to speculate that many millenials believe that their speeding will have no consequences whatsoever. And I genuinely hope that they are correct, that they will not take a turn too quickly and roll their vehicles, or lose control while driving too fast in hazardous conditions and hit another vehicle head on.
When participants were asked if they had run a light that had just turned red in the 30 days prior to the survey, 50 percent admitted to doing so. This statistic is 14% higher than all other age groups. More than 1 in 8 believed that this driving behavior is acceptable.
Statistics are even worse for texting while driving. Particpants is the 19-24 age group were 1.6 more times likely to read and type texts and e-mails while driving than the other age groups.
