A study published by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety has found that millennials, ages 19 to 24-years-old, are the age group most likely to engage in poor driving habits.
AAA researchers analyzed several generations of drivers and their likelihood of engaging in dangerous behavior that would increase the risk of accident. The behaviors AAA assessed were:
- Texting behind the wheel
- Likeliness to speed
- Red light running
The study asked drivers of each generational group whether they had committed the any of these offenses in the past 30 days. The results were:
- Drivers ages 16 to 18: 69.3 percent
- Drivers ages 19 to 24: 88.4 percent
- Drivers ages 25 to 39: 79.2 percent
- Drivers ages 40 to 59: 75.2 percent
- Drivers ages 60-74: 67.3 percent
- Drives ages 75+: 69.1 percent
The study found that 88 percent of millennial drivers between the ages of 19 to 24 consistently take part in some form of dangerous driving behavior every 30 days.
Breaking down the data collected in the survey, millennial drivers were nearly twice as likely to engage in certain activities of risky behavior compared to other age groups:
Texting while driving
Drivers ages 19 to 24-years-old were 1.6 times as likely to report reading a text message when operating a vehicle within the last 30 days (66.1 vs. 40.2 percent).
Millennial drivers were also nearly two times more likely than other drivers to admit to sending a text message or e-mail while driving (59.3 vs. 31.4 percent).
Speeding
Drivers in the age group of 19 to 24-years-old were 1.4 times more likely to admit to speeding within the last 30 days. This includes going 10 miles per hour over the speed limit in residential neighborhoods.
While less than five percent of all drivers stated that speeding in a school zone is unacceptable, nearly 12 percent of millennial drivers reported that traveling more than 10 miles per hour over the speed limit in a school zone was completely acceptable.
Red-light running
The study revealed that nearly 50 percent of drivers within the age group of 19 to 24-years-old reported to driving through a red-light directly after a light change, when they could have easily stopped. This risky behavior was not as common among the other drivers, of which only 36 percent revealed to have committed the traffic offense.
While millennials take a large portion of the blame for the increasingly poor display of driving behavior across the U.S., older generations between the ages of 40 to 59 also admitted to engaging in similar behavior.
When asked whether or not they believed their generation had the best drivers, millennials were the most self-critical, with only 26 percent placing themselves in the best driver category. The next closest age group, 25 to 39-year-olds, had only 34 percent of members state that they were the best drivers.
AAA believes that this sort of behavior may have contributed toward the high number of traffic deaths reported in 2015 and the first nine months of 2016.
The number of traffic deaths continues to rise each year, with 2016 experiencing an eight percent increase within the first nine months. All drivers need to practice safe driving behavior that will help ensure the safety of all motorists and pedestrians sharing the road.
If you or your loved one was injured by a negligent driver, contact our Phoenix car accident attorneys for a free initial consultation and quality legal services that will not cost you anything unless we are able to successfully recover compensation for your claim.
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