Survey: Today's Teens Are Drinking and Driving Less

Teens are drinking and driving less reports national survey.

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Complex Original

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Thought to be terrible and the only generation worse than the always-maligned millennials (Get off our backs!) teens these days are not only having less sex (though more safe sex) and smoking less weed, a new report says they're also drinking and driving less. All is not lost. 

The national survey published in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report says 6.6 percent of teens—ages 16 to 20—reported drinking and driving in 2014 in comparison to the 16.2 percent of teens who reported it in 2002. The CDC reports 2,163 teens died in car accidents in 2013. Of those fatal accidents, 17 percent of teen drivers were drunk. 

Lead author of the report and an epidemiologist at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration Alejandro Azofeifa said of the survey: "It's a multifactorial approach we are seeing in this particular case." He and other authors attribute the percentage drop to drinking and driving campaigns, for example the catchy "Drive sober or get pulled over" and sobriety checkpoints. 

Young adults ages 21 to 25 were also surveyed. The survey showed 18 percent of young adults drank and drove in 2014 compared to 2002's 38 percent. The survey asked whether participants had drank and drove at least once in the past year but didn't get into specifics, such as asking participants if they thought they were over the legal limit for alcohol at the time.

Sure D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) was a bust, but at least these teens have learned something. 

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