There are innumerable statistics about the combination of under age drinking and driving and all them point to one thing: never combine the two. Teenage drivers who drive while drinking increase their risk of being injured through a vehicular accident which can end up being fatal.
One person dies from an alcohol-related accident every 50 minutes. This is based on the fact that 10,839 people were killed in drunk driving crashes (i), said a report from the Century Council, an organization of distillers that has been fighting against drunk driving and underage drinking for two decades. During the past twenty years, deaths due to alcohol-related driving declined 32% among the general population and declined 52% among the underage population. That is an encouraging report, but still the issue of under age driving after drinking is a serious concern.
Century Council further reports that vehicular accidents, specifically motor vehicles, are still the leading cause of teenage fatality. “In 2009, 5,623 15- to 20-year old drivers were involved in fatal motor vehicle crashes, including 2,739 where 15- to 20-year old drivers were killed. More specifically, in 2008, 31%, or 838, young drivers between the ages of 15 and 20 who were killed in a crash had a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of .01 or higher, and 25% (or 694) had a BAC of .08 or higher. For young drivers (15- to 20-year olds) alcohol involvement in fatal crashes is higher among male drivers than their female counterparts – 26% among males compared to 14% among females.” (Source: NHTSA/FARS, “Young Drivers” 2009)
Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), another national organization that advocates against drunk driving, says the one-third of the U.S. population is affected or impacted by drunk driving. (ii) This advocacy was started over thirty years ago by a mother whose thirteen-year old daughter was killed by a drunk driver. Today, MADD focuses its campaign on the prevention of teenage drinking as well advocating for policy measures to curb the violent crime that is drunk driving.
Still, despite these efforts, underage drinking is still blamed for about 6000 deaths each year, and mostly because of crashes and other related incidents. What can be done? Fortunately, there is one encouraging statistic: studies reveal that parental disapproval is the number one reason children choose not to start drinking alcohol.
And that is why the U.S. Senate approved Resolution 157 declaring April 21st Power Talk 21 day. It is the national day for parents to start talking with their kids about alcohol. (iii) Parents remain the most influential persons in their children’s decision making processes about drinking. MADD has a specific program tackling this which is available in their website.
Underage drinking kills 6,000 young people each year – many of these unnecessary deaths are due to alcohol-impaired driving resulting in accidents and crashes. This is how lethal the combination of under age drinking and driving is. And parents CAN do something about it.
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ii. MADD about
iii. MADD… Get involved