If you get in the car with a drunk driver, your chances of getting in a traffic accident skyrocket compared to if you rode in a car with a sober driver. But according to new research, that’s not the only way passengers are affected by riding in a vehicle with a drunk driver.
Researchers say that individuals who ride with a drunk driver are not only more likely to be involved in a drunk driving accident or DUI with that driver, but it also increases their likelihood of getting their own DUI in the future. This, in turn, could leave them with licence suspensions, jail time and higher car insurance quotes than everyone else.
“Our previous study indicated that exposure to alcohol and drug-impaired driving (meaning riding with a drunk or otherwise impaired driver) was an independent risk factor for teenage DWI,”, said lead author Kaigang Li, a community and behavioral health researcher at Colorado State University.
Risky Driving Behaviors
Impaired teen drivers are at a higher risk for being involved in a traffic accident than impaired adults, and researchers want to warn teens about their safety risks when they get in a car with an inebriated driver. In many traffic accidents involving impaired teenagers and other vehicles, it’s usually the other car that has a dash cam on it that provides evidence of the events that unfolded. Dash cams are a valuable piece of equipment for your cars and can be purchased from somewhere like blackboxmycar.com. The dash cams can also come in useful when a victim of the actions of a drunk driver files a lawsuit for compensation. Using dash cam footage as evidence, as well as researching the way lawsuit loans work can put the victim at the best chance of winning. This should be enough to discourage drink driving significantly. Teens are 17 times more likely than adults to die in a crash when they have a blood alcohol concentration over the legal limit. If you’re riding with a drunk driver, you’re still making a very risky decision.
“Whereas driving drunk has become more and more stigmatized since the 1980s, the social prescriptions against riding with (other types of) impaired driver are not as strong,” said Jennifer Schwartz, a sociology researcher at Washington State University, who wasn’t involved in the study. “As researchers, we understand less about why someone would choose to ride with an impaired driver.”
In a 2013 survey, 25 percent of young women and 22 percent of young men said they had ridden in a car with a driver who was under the influence of alcohol or drugs. New drivers should be more than aware of the dangers of doing this. After all, places like Gary Meggs Driving School teach drivers how important safety on the roads is. In the 2014 survey, the total percentage of teens who said they had ridden with an inebriated driver had risen to 33 percent. Other findings from the survey include:
- The impaired driver was more likely to be a peer than an older adult.
- Binge drinking and marijuana use were both associated with a higher likelihood of riding with an impaired friend.
- Marijuana users were twice as likely as non-marijuana users to ride with an alcohol-impaired peer and 11 times more likely to ride with a marijuana-impaired peer.
Researchers say that even if children are making good choices behind the wheel, parents should pay attention to who they are riding with as passengers.
“The point is how parents may increase their monitoring knowledge about what our kids are doing and what strategies can be employed to reduce their risk behaviors,” researchers concluded.
