Filed under: Safety
Alternate titles for this story could have been “American drivers growing stupider,” “Number of boneheads on the road increases,” “Natural selection having greater influence on American drivers.” We don’t mean to make light of the latest study from the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, but it’s so darn disturbing that we aren’t really sure what else to do.
AAA compiled the results of three years of surveys, and found that Americans aren’t nearly as concerned about seriously bad behaviors while driving as they were a few years ago. It’s no wonder there was an estimated 5.3-percent increase in annual traffic fatalities last year. The infuriating thing is that we’ve gone seven years without an increase in fatalities.
In 2009, 90 percent of the AAA survey respondents thought drunk driving was a “serious threat.” 71 percent were opposed to drowsy driving. 87 percent considered working a smartphone while behind the wheel to be a bad thing, while 21 percent admitted to texting while driving. 77 percent took issue with people that ran red lights.
Fast-forward to 2012, and we’re going to see a rather radical shift in feelings. Only 69 percent of people find drinking and driving to be an issue, while 46 percent are opposed to drowsy driving. 81 percent think a smartphone and driving don’t mix, while 26 percent have texted while behind the wheel. Also baffling, 70 percent of people are against running red lights, with over a third admitting to flying through a red in the past month. For those that don’t feel like looking at the paragraph above for comparison, fewer people are concerned with bad behind-the-wheel behaviors.
Take a look below for the full press release on the AAA study, and please, please be safe behind the wheel.
Continue reading Americans who consider drunk driving ‘a serious threat’ declines 21% in 3 years
Americans who consider drunk driving ‘a serious threat’ declines 21% in 3 years originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 22 Aug 2013 13:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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