Students Improve Driving Behaviors

Over the past two decades, U.S. high school students have greatly improved health-risk behaviors associated with driving, according to the CDC’s 2011 National Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS). Although motor vehicle crashes account for more than one in three U.S. teen deaths each year, the percentage of students who never or rarely wore a seat belt declined from 26 to 8, and drinking and driving declined as well. Despite these encouraging statistics, the YRBS notes that youth are engaging in other dangerous practices while driving, such as using a cell phone. The survey found that that one in three high school students had texted or emailed while driving a car or other vehicle during the past 30 days. According to Howell Wechsler, director of CDC’s Division of Adolescent and School Health, the results are reassuring; however, findings also show that there is a continued need for government agencies, community organizations, schools, parents and other community members to work together to address the range of risk behaviors prevalent among youth. For more information on the survey results, click here.