Allstate Insurance Co. released a new survey Tuesday indicating that a slight majority of Texas teens have either driven while drinking alcohol or have been a passenger with a teen driver who had been drinking.
In a survey of 233 Texas teen drivers polled between May 10 and June 11, Allstate found that 52 percent of young drivers engaged in drinking and driving. Allstate polls teens throughout the state to compile the results, including San Antonio.
Allstate conducted a study of Texas teen driving habits. Drinking while driving was just one of the habits teenagers engaged in, according to the study.
Eighty-eight percent of teens admitted they text-message or talk on their cell phones while driving. Forty-eight percent were stopped by police during their first year of driving. Thirty-three percent got into an accident during their first year of driving. Thirty percent say they’ve driven so fast that they’ve lost control of their vehicle or they’ve been a passenger in a car with a teen driver who has lost control.
“These numbers are disturbing and show there is a critical need for parents and teens to talk about safe driving,” says David Christopher, an agent in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. “Car crashes are the number one killer of teens and summer is the deadliest time of the year for teen drivers. The time to act is now.”
The Allstate Corp. (NYSE: ALL) is the nation’s largest publicly held personal lines insurer. The company sells auto and homeowners insurance through a network of 14,700 agencies and financial representatives in the United States and Canada. The company is based in Northbrook, Ill.
