Texting and driving, speeding and gunning through the yellow to red light change to shave off an extra 30 seconds of drive time.
A lot of us are guilty of it. But the younger driving demographic may be more guilty than the rest.
According to a new report from the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, young millennials are the worst behaved drivers around - 88% admit to having engaged in at least one risky behavior behind the wheel in the last month.
The dangerous distracted driving behaviors report comes as the U.S. traffic deaths rose more than 7% in 2015 to 35,092. This is the largest single-year increase in five decades, according to the report.
"Alarmingly, some of the drivers ages 19-24 believe that their dangerous driving behavior is acceptable," said Dr. David Yang, AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety executive director. "It's critical that these drivers understand the potentially deadly consequences of engaging in these types of behaviors and that they change their behavior and attitudes in order to reverse the growing number of fatalities on U.S. roads."
The following is a ranking of age groups who admit to speeding, red light running or texting behind the wheel in the last month:
- Drivers ages 19-24: 88.4%
- Drivers ages 25-39: 79.2%
- Drivers ages 40-59: 75.2%
- Drivers ages 16-18: 69.3%
- Drivers ages 75+: 69.1%
- Drivers ages 60-74%
Drivers ages 19 to 24 are 1.6 times more likely to read a text message or e-mail while driving, while the same demographic is almost twice as likely to report having typed or sent a text message or e-mail while driving.
The same young millennials are 1.4 times as likely to report having driven 10 mph over the speed limit on a residential street and almost 12% say it's acceptable to drive 10 mph over the speed limit in a school zone.
The report also says almost half of all drivers ages 19 to 24 admit to driving through a light that has just turned red when they could have safely stopped. Nearly 14% of young drivers also say this is acceptable.
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