Teen Drunk Driving Falls on High Gas Prices, Less Alcohol

Drunk driving among U.S. teens fell 54 percent in the past two decades, a trend helped by laws to curb underage alcohol consumption and higher gas prices keeping high school students off the road, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In 2011, 10 percent of high school students reported drinking and driving, compared with 22 percent in 1991, according to the report. People ages 16 to 20 are 17 times more likely to die in a crash when their blood alcohol is .08 percent, the legal limit in many states, the report in the Atlanta-based CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report found.