Millennials are the Most Dangerous Drivers on Florida’s Roads

According to a recent study by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, the most dangerous drivers on Florida’s roadways are so-called Millennials. Not surprisingly, the reason these 19 to 24 year olds cause so many car accidents is because they regularly are distracted drivers who text while driving, feel speeding is acceptable and regularly run red lights. Incredibly, Millennials are more dangerous and take more risks behind the wheel than even new 16 to 18 year old drivers.

The actual statistics are truly concerning. The AAA’s study revealed that sixty percent of Millenial drivers actually admit to sending a text or email while operating a motor vehicle.  That admitted rate is nearly twice as high as all other age groups of drivers.  Also, almost 50% of Millenials admitted to running a red light, one they could have easily stopped for, a rate that is almost 25% greater than other age groups.

Millennials also admit to regularly driving more than 10 m.p.h. over the posted speed limits in school zones. That behavior which endangers children and demonstrates a disregard of some of the most costly traffic ticket consequences is a rate which is more than double that of all other age groups of drivers. We, as Fort Lauderdale personal injury lawyers, share the same concerns as the AAA; that a large population of drivers is willing to regularly take unnecessary risks which needlessly increase the chance of being in a deadly car accident. Considering fatal car accident deaths rose more than 7% over the last year, this accepted recklessness should be truly concerning to Florida drivers.

The most frustrating part of the AAA’s study is that while almost all drivers agree that aggressive and distracted driving is not acceptable behavior, they themselves regularly drive in such a reckless manner. In fact, while 80% of motorists feel that texting while driving is completely unacceptable, more than 40% of those same drivers admit to sending a text while driving within the past month. A similar percentage holds true regarding drivers’ feelings about those who operate a vehicle while sleepy, with 80% of those in the study calling the behavior unacceptable; but, nearly 30% of those same drivers admitting to driving while having trouble keeping awake within the last month.

Finally, while a majority of drivers agree that the legal limit for drunk driving should be reduced from .08 to .05%, almost three percent of those same drivers admitted, unbelievably, to smoking pot or drinking and the getting behind the wheel of a car.

As a Miami car accident lawyer who helps seriously injured victims of distracted driving crashes, we hope our fellow motorist start to practice what they preach, but not doing the dangerous driving behavior they believe and know they should not.