Dangerous behaviors behind the wheel spiked throughout the pandemic, with abandoned roads bringing out the worst in drivers. Site visitors and pedestrian deaths jumped within the rapid aftermath, however at the same time as deaths start to fall a couple of years later, drivers in a brand new examine from AAA admitted to participating in harmful driving habits that they know are incorrect, like dashing 15 miles per hour or extra above the pace restrict.

Almost half of all of the respondents admitted to cracking 15 mph or extra on freeways within the final 30 days, whereas 36 p.c sped 10 mph or extra on residential streets. Twenty-seven p.c ran a pink gentle, whereas one other 12.4 p.c confessed to driving with no seatbelt.

The examine additionally requested respondents to fee every of those behaviors as “very or extraordinarily harmful,” and 48.6 p.c mentioned dashing 15 mph or extra was harmful. Sixty-one p.c mentioned dashing on residential roads was unhealthy, whereas 80 p.c thought working a pink gentle was incorrect, however a bit much less, 75.9 p.c, thought not carrying a seatbelt was harmful. 

The examine additionally has another fascinating, self-reported tidbits, like 35.5 p.c of all respondents saying they’ve held and talked on a cellular phone within the final month. A barely greater proportion, 37.0 p.c, admit to studying a textual content or e-mail, whereas 26.7 p.c manually despatched a textual content or e-mail whereas behind the wheel. Almost 60 p.c say they’ve used hands-free cellphone connectivity within the final month, like Apple CarPlay. Drivers 19-24 admitted to utilizing their units probably the most when driving. 

Whereas individuals are dashing and texting, they aren’t ingesting and driving—or not admitting to it. Solely 7.4 admitted to ingesting sufficient that they might have been driving over the authorized restrict. 5 p.c mentioned they drove inside an hour of smoking marijuana. Nevertheless, practically 20 p.c mentioned they drove whereas they have been so drained that they couldn’t hold their eyes open.

Try the whole examine right here.