Finally some good news regarding teen behavior! According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the number of teens who drink and drive has reduced dramatically in the last two decades. In 2011, nine out of 10 students 16 and over said they did not drink and drive, which represents a drop of 54 percent over 20 years. I must say I'm really happy to hear this, especially now that I'm a mom. I've reported way too many deadly accidents in which the driver was a teen who decided to get behind the wheel of his car despite being drunk.
Car accidents continue to be the leading cause of death among teens, according to CDC director Thomas Frieden. In 2010, one in five teenage drivers involved in a fatal crash had alcohol in his or her system.
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While the new numbers are super encouraging, the reality is that there's still much to be done. You see, if nine out of 10 teens said they hadn't driven drunk, that means one in 10 said they had. That translates to nearly one million students a month admitting that they got behind the wheel after drinking. One million! And all it takes is one to change someone's life–including his own–forever!
This is especially concerning considering the following statement from Frieden:
Drinking and driving is risky for any driver, but especially for young teens. Young drivers are 17 times more likely to die in a crash when they have a blood alcohol concentration of 0.08 than when they have not been drinking.
The new CDC report also noted that boys 18 and older are more likely to drink and drive while 16-year-old girls are the least likely. And that most teens who reported drinking and driving also reported binge drinking or having five or more drinks in one sitting.
So even though we seem to have done something right in terms of reducing the number of teens who drink and drive, we need to continue the work and as parents we need to make sure we talk to our children about the real dangers behind making such an irresponsible decision.
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