A new study revealed that teens are more likely to drive under the influence of drugs or alcohol if they’ve ridden in a car with an impaired driver.
Not surprisingly, the more often a teen reported riding in a car with an impaired driver, the more likely they were to drive under the influence.
“When you experience (riding with an impaired driver), it’s a normalizing experience,” said Bruce Simons-Morton, a senior investigator with the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and author of the study. “It sort of suggests that that’s just how people do it, so it’s OK when (you) start driving to drive while intoxicated.”
Collecting Data
For their study, researchers tracked 2,500 10th grade students over the course of three years until they completed 12th grade. Students were given a yearly survey that asked how many times during the past year they had rode in a vehicle with a driver who had been drinking or consumed illegal drugs. The study did not ask whether the driver was a parent or a friend.
After analyzing the data, researchers discovered:
- 10th graders who reported riding in a car with an impaired driver were “many times more likely” to report driving under the influence as a 12th grader compared to students who said they had never ridden with an impaired driver.
- Teens who got their license in 10th or 11th grade were twice as likely to report driving while impaired in 12th grade compared to students who obtained their license in 12th grade.
- Riding in a car with an impaired driver was a much better indicator of the likelihood a student would drive under the influence as a senior than the age at which a student obtained his or her license.
Simons-Morton said the most eye-opening statistic occurred when they compared DUI likelihood for students who regularly rode in the car with an impaired driver to those who had never ridden with an impaired driver.
“But if you reported exposure to riding with an intoxicated driver at all three surveys, you were 120 times more likely than those who had never been exposed,” said Simons-Morton.
He concluded by saying riding in a car with an impaired driver is very dangerous, and teens should do their best to set a good example for their friends.
“Nearly half of fatalities and serious injuries in alcohol-related motor vehicle crashes occur to passengers, so it should be noted that the risks associated with driving while intoxicated is not just to drivers,” said Simons-Morton. “Friends don’t let friends drive drunk.”
Related source: USA Today
