Oh, those Millennial drivers: They’re just not very safe

Almost 90% do risky things on the road

Millennial drivers are the worst.

That’s not just their elders talking. The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety found 88% of drivers ages 19 to 24 acknowledged engaging in risky behavior such as texting while driving, running red lights or speeding in the pre- vious month, according to a report released Wednesday.

The survey of 2,511 drivers from Aug. 25 through Sept. 6 by market research firm GfK found:

Millennials acknowledged typing or sending a text or email while driving at nearly twice the rate of other drivers ( 59.3% to 31.4%).

Nearly half of Millennials reported running a red light even if they could have stopped safely, compared with 36% of the rest of drivers.

Nearly 12% of Millennials said it was acceptable to speed 10 mph over the speed limit in a school zone, compared with 5% of other drivers.

“Alarmingly, some of the drivers ages 19 to 24 believe that their dangerous driving behavior is acceptable,” says David Yang, the foundation’s executive director.

The findings come as driving is becoming more dangerous: The number of traffic deaths in the USA rose to 35,092 in 2015. That 7% increase from a year earlier was the largest one- year jump in five decades.

The survey also found drivers are hypocrites: While 40.2% of drivers reported reading a text or email in the preceding month, 78.2% called that “completely unacceptable,” the survey said.

There was strong support from drivers ( 81%) for requiring ignition locks for even first- time offenders of driving while intoxicated. And 63.5% of drivers agreed with a proposal to reduce the blood- alcohol concentration from the current national standard of 0.08% to 0.05%.

But 2.5% of drivers acknowledged driving within an hour of using marijuana and alcohol in the past year.

Says Yang, “It’s critical that these drivers understand the potentially deadly consequences of engaging in these types of behaviors and that they change their behavior and attitudes.”