Millennials admit to risky driving, survey shows

Feb. 15 (UPI) -- Millennials admit to taking risks when behind the wheel, an AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety survey released Wednesday shows.

In the survey of 19-to-24-year-old drivers, 88.4 percent admitted to running a red light, speeding or texting while driving in 30 days prior to the questioning. Fourteen percent said driving through a traffic light that just turned red was acceptable.

They admitted sending or receiving a text message while driving at nearly twice the rate -- 59.3 percent to 31.4 percent – than other age groups surveyed, and 29.8 percent said they drove while drowsy.

Of millennials surveyed, 2.5 percent admitted to driving within one hour of drinking alcohol or using marijuana.

Despite those admissions, millennials surveyed also called distracted and impaired driving unacceptable, and were strongly supportive of requiring ignition locks for first-time offenders who drove while intoxicated. They also want to raise the nationally recognized blood alcohol level standard for violations from 0.08 percent to 0.05 percent.

"Alarmingly, some of the drivers age 19 to 24 believe that their dangerous driving behavior is unacceptable. It's critical that these drivers understand the potentially deadly consequences," said Dr. David Yang, executive director of the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety.

The foundation added that the number of traffic deaths in the United States rose to 35,092 in 2015, a 7 percent increase over 2014 and the largest year-to-year increase in 50 years.

The survey of 2,511 licensed drivers from Aug. 25 to Sept. 6 was taken for the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety by the market research firm GSK.