Think before you drink.

Think twice before you

drive.

Problem.• Drinking and driving can be deadly, especially for teens• Fewer teens are drinking and driving, but this risky behavior is still a

major threat.• Drinking and driving among teens in high school has gone down by

54% since 1991. Still, high school teens drive after drinking about 2.4 million times a month.

• 85% of teens in high school who report drinking and driving in the past month also say they binge drank. In the survey, binge drinking was defined as having 5 or more alcoholic drinks within a couple of hours.

• 1 in 5 teen drivers involved in fatal crashes had some alcohol in their system in 2010. Most of these drivers (81%) had BACs* higher than the legal limit for adults.

• *Blood alcohol concentration. It is illegal for adults to drive with a BAC of .08% or higher. It is illegal for anyone under age 21 to drive after drinking any alcohol in all US states.

Characteristics of the Drinking and Driving Problem Among Youth

• Older Teens: Of all the young drinking drivers who are killed or seriously injured, the smallest proportion is 16 years of age. The largest proportion is 19 years of age.

• Males: Account for 87% of the young fatally injured drinking drivers and 89% of the seriously injured drinking drivers.

• Summertime: Young drinking drivers are most likely to be killed or injured in the summer (32.4% and 40.8% respectively) and least likely to be killed or injured in the winter (8% and 11.4% respectively). Weekend: A large percentage of young drinking drivers die or are seriously injured on the weekend.

• Night time: The vast majority of young drinking drivers die or are seriously injured in crashes at night.

• Automobiles: Most young drinking drivers are killed or seriously injured when driving an automobile. Single-vehicle: Young drinking drivers are most likely to be involved in single-vehicle crashes.

• At fault: In nearly two-thirds of the alcohol-related multiple vehicle crashes, it was the fatally injured teen driver who had been drinking and not the other drivers.

• Crashes: By the time a driver reaches a blood alcohol content of .10%, he or she is 51 times more likely than a non-drinking driver to be involved in a fatal crash.

Accident photos.

MADD Canada.• MADD Canada is the Canadian arm of Mothers Against Drunk Driving. Its

stated purpose is to stop impaired driving and to support victims. MADD Canada operates public awareness and education programs which focus on stopping impaired driving. Local activities are carried out by Chapters in approximately 100 communities across Canada.

• The organization also supports a number of federal and provincial initiatives aimed at reducing incidents of impaired driving, including changes to Criminal Code provisions against drunk driving and a zero blood alcohol content limit for drivers under 21.[

• Each day in Canada there are approximately 4 deaths and approximately 190 injuries from crashes involving alcohol or drugs.

• Statistics suggest that efforts made in the fight against impaired driving have saved 30,589 Canadian lives since 1982. Despite this number of lives saved, Transport Canada reports a total of 39,487 alcohol-related fatalities on Canadian roads since 1982. Had there been no effort to reduce impaired driving deaths, MADD Canada estimates the number could have been 70,000 in alcohol-related fatalities.