AAA: Risky driving is on the rise
MIAMI - Millions of people are driving home from their holiday destinations. Unfortunately, New Year's and the days surrounding it are some of the deadliest on U.S. roads, taking about 4-hundred lives a year, according to the National Safety Council.
"The risk profile of drivers out on the road today is fundamentally riskier than it was before COVID," said AAA's Jake Nelson.
A new survey from AAA finds many risky behaviors that were declining in recent years are making a comeback.
"The number of people who admitted to driving while impaired by alcohol, cannabis, speeding, texting while driving, a whole range of risky driving behaviors has increased dramatically," Nelson said.
The AAA survey finds the percentage of drivers who admit speeding 15 miles per hour over the speed limit on the freeway actually fell to 45.1% in 2020 but then jumped to 50.7% 2021.
Driving impaired is also a problem. The number of people who admitted smoking cannabis before getting behind the wheel was up 13.6% in 2021 compared to 2020. Drinking and driving rose 23.7% in 2021 compared to 2020.
The results come as the National Highway Safety Traffic Administration says traffic fatalities increased 10.5% in 2021 compared to 2020. Many of those deaths were from speeding.
"The number of people who both say that speeding is a dangerous activity to engage in but also admit to doing it themselves has increased over the last several years. You would have to travel 100 miles, traveling 80 miles per hour instead of 75 miles per hour just to shave off 5 minutes from your travel time," said Nelson. "Most people don't travel those distances or those speeds for that length of time. And so, we're really not shortening the duration of our trips by speeding and creating these dangerous scenarios."
Nelson said the faster someone is driving, the higher the risk of causing a deadly crash.
