Teen Drinking & Driving

Teenage drinking and driving causes thousands of preventable deaths every year and seriously injures thousands more people. Parents can help prevent these accidents by learning about teenage drinking and driving and taking steps to discourage their teens from driving drunk or riding with a drunk driver.

Teen drunk driving is a serious problem for the teens who are drinking, for their passengers, and for other people on the road. There are some concerning statistics about teenage drinking and driving:

• Car crashes are the number one killer of teens aged 15 to 20.
• One-third of teen traffic deaths – over 2,000 each year – are alcohol related. This number does not include adults and children who are killed by teen drunk drivers.
• 400,000 teens suffer serious driving-related injuries every year, and many of these are alcohol related.
• Even sober, teens are four times as likely as older drivers to be in an accident, mostly due to their inexperience on the road and bad driving habits.
• When they drink, teens tend to drink too much or binge drink.
• Teens who drink are twice as likely to cause an accident than older drunk drivers.
• Teen drunk driving is surprisingly common. In one survey, 1 in 3 teens reported that they had been a passenger in a car with a drunk driver.
• 3 out of 4 teens killed in drunk driving accidents were not wearing seatbelts.
• Most teen deaths from car accidents occur on nights and weekends, when teens have been out at parties, are tired, and/or are distracted.

Most parents know about the dangers of underage drinking and driving, but what you may not know is that the dangers of underage drinking are even greater off the roadways.  This means that parents, who talk with their kids about drunk driving, but not about waiting until 21 to drink at all, are missing an important step in keeping their kids safe.

If you or somebody you know has been involved in a motor vehicle accident involving teenage drinking and driving, call our car accident attorneys at the Mintz Law Firm today! 303-462-2999

That does not include other impacts of underage drinking, like unplanned or unsafe sex, injuries, declining school performance, and greater chances of having problems with alcohol later in life. We need to understand the full scope of the impact underage drinking can have and why it’s so important that parents have the ongoing discussion with their kids about underage drinking.

You can find additional resources at madd.org