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Arcadia Weekly Feb 15, 2017
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AAA study: Young millennial drivers are the worst
A new AAA study reports that more than half of all drivers have texted while driving, ran a red light or exceeded the speed limit in just the last 30 days.
The study points to young millennial drivers as the worst offenders, as 88 percent of drivers between the ages of 19 and 24 have admitted to committing one of the aforementioned behaviors, the Associated Press reports.
The new study from AAA comes from its Foundation for Traffic Safety. It polled more than 2,500 drivers in the U.S. older than 16 years old.
Traffic deaths in the U.S. rose 7 percent in 2015, and a spokesperson tells A.P. that they are expected to rise again once 2016’s numbers are finished.
Ten percent of drivers between the ages of 60 and 74 have texted or sent an email while driving, and 37 percent of drivers older than 75 have admitted to running a light that just turned red.
In a major contradiction, more than 75 percent of drivers said they believe it’s unacceptable to text or email while behind the wheel. Also, more than 50 percent of drivers feel threatened by drivers paying attention to their phones and not the road.
The newest drivers, ages 16 to 18, were found the least likely to speed, run red lights or to text and drive when compared to those between the ages of 20 and 50, A.P. reports.
Nearly 95 percent of drivers thing drowsy driving is dangerous, but 29 percent admit to recently driving drowsy.
“It was a surprise that there were relatively high rates of these behaviors among the drivers we think of as safer,” Lindsay Arnold, a research associate with the AAA Foundation, told A.P. “It points to the need to improve driver behavior if we’re going to reverse this alarming trend.”
Other noteworthy findings include 87 percent of drivers admitting to operating when they thought they could be close to the legal alcohol limit. Ninety-five percent said they had never operated a vehicle within an hour of smoking marijuana.
