A recently-published study indicates that teenagers who combine the usage of marijuana and alcohol may increase their risk of employing unsafe driving practices. While it is obvious that using these two intoxicants simultaneously while driving an automobile would increase the chances of getting in a car crash, what this study reveals is that teens who combined the use of these substances within the prior year have a higher statistical likelihood of getting a ticket or driving unsafely than those who didn’t. Florida parents may wish to take these statistics into consideration when talking with their teenagers about drug and alcohol use.
The results of the survey were compiled after researchers reviewed 72,000 surveys given to seniors in U.S. high schools. The surveys spanned approximately 35 years, dating from 2011 back to 1976. While past studies have reviewed accident statistics for teens who have drunk alcohol or smoked marijuana separately, this is one of the limited reviews that have looked at results for teens who used the substances simultaneously.
Allegedly, if a teen has smoked marijuana while drinking alcohol within the last 12 months he or she has, at the very least, a 50 percent elevated chance of getting issued a ticket or warning, or of being in a car crash. On the top end of the statistics, teens could have as much as a 90 percent elevated chance of being involved in such events.
Statistics indicated that 40 percent of those teens who had simultaneously used marijuana and alcohol inside the last year, had received a traffic warning or ticket. Thirty percent of them had gotten into a car crash.
Anyone who takes to the roads in Florida is at risk of becoming a victim of an impaired or negligent driver. This is why it is so important to teach safe driving strategies. However, those who are injured (and family members of those who are killed) due to the fault of another person will can work to seek restitution under the law. In many cases, financial restitution obtained through a personal injury action is the only way that victims can get money to pay for their medical care.
Source: Headline & Global News, “Combined Alcohol and Marijuana Usage Increases Risk of Unsafe Driving” Samantha Goodwin, Apr. 28, 2014