(PCM) Teen drinking and driving has dropped by more than half in the last two decades, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Since 2011, the number of teens who drive after drinking has decreased by 54 percent, the study found. Researchers analyzed self-reports of drinking and driving from the national Youth Risk Behavior Surveys, in addition to blood alcohol results from fatal car crashes involving teens across the country. They discovered that in 2011 only 10.3 percent of teens reported drinking and driving compared to the year 1991 when nearly 20 percent admitted to drinking and driving.
According to Time, the CDC credited the drop to every state raising the minimum drinking age to 21, the implementation of stricter zero-tolerance laws, and to the adoption of so-called graduated drivers license laws, which limit the hours teens can drive at night and how many passengers are allowed in their car.
“We are moving in the right direction, but we have to keep up the momentum,” said CDC Director Dr. Thomas Frieden in a teleconference.
“There is a broader recognition that drinking and driving is not O.K.,” he said. “There is now a sense that friends don’t let friends drink and drive. If you think of the broader social change from ‘one for the road’ to ‘friends don’t let friends drink and drive,’ that’s a major change in our society, and I think that’s one of the things that’s really driving the progress here.”
BUT, one in 10 teens say they have consumed alcohol and driven, a number that amounts to a whopping 2.4 million times a month.
The study is published in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
More:
Underage Tobacco Sales Reach All-Time Low
