Texting, drunk and aggressive drivers among top concerns for Arizona drivers

Phoenix, AZ -- A recent statewide survey by AAA shows that Arizona drivers want their fellow motorists to be calm, sober and focused.

According to the annual survey, which aims to gauge the opinions and concerns of the motoring public across the state regarding traffic safety, Arizona drivers want better traffic safety laws. The survey showed that nine in 10 Arizonans (91 percent) favor a texting while driving statewide ban for all drivers, and about two-thirds (64 percent) favor a primary seat belt law.

“While we’ve made some gains in recent years, Arizona still lags behind other states in enacting adequate traffic safety laws,” said Linda Gorman, director of communication and public affairs for AAA Arizona. “Our members echo the concerns of motorists around Arizona, which include wanting laws on texting while driving and driving while impaired or angry.”

The survey’s top three concerns by Arizona motorists were:

Drivers that text while driving (76 percent)
Drunk drivers (57 percent)
Aggressive drivers (41 percent)

Respondents also were given a list of five potential changes to Arizona’s Graduated Driver License (GDL) requirements for novice drivers. The two changes with the strongest support were banning the use of cell phones while driving during the GDL phase (90 percent) and mandatory driver education classes for young drivers (77 percent).

“With car crashes being a leading cause of death for teens, we know that improving Arizona’s GDL law would improve our state’s road safety,” Gorman said. “As a safety advocate, AAA knows that greater injury and fatality reductions are achieved by adding proven GDL components.”

For this study, a survey was mailed to 2,500 randomly selected AAA Arizona members. It has a plus or minus 4.8 percent margin of error.   back...