How has the teenage drinking and driving problem changed over time?
What can be done to further reduce teenage drinking and driving? 1. Is alcohol a significant factor in teenagers’ crashes? Yes. Young drivers are less likely than adults to drive after drinking alcohol, but their crash risk is substantially higher when they do. This is especially true at low and moderate blood alcohol concentrations (BACs) and is thought to result from teenagers’ relative inexperience with drinking, with driving, and with combining the two.1,2 In 2005, 25 percent of 16-20-year-old passenger vehicle drivers fatally injured in crashes had high BACs (0.08 percent or higher). The percentage of fatally injured drivers with high BACs was much lower among females (15 percent) than among males (29 percent), and also was lower among 16-17-year-old drivers (15 percent) than among 18-19-year-old (26 percent) or 20-year-old (36 percent) drivers. Drivers ages 16-20 with BACs of 0.05-0.08 percent are far more likely than sober teenage drivers to be killed in single-vehicle crashes —
