--- title: Kids' Own Drivers Are Biggest DUI Death Risk, Study Says description: The greatest threat remains the adults behind the wheel of the car themselves, not strangers in other vehicles, canonical: https://time.com/87617/kids-own-drivers-are-biggest-dui-death-risk-study-says/ author: Dan Hirschhorn article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-05-05T11:58:31.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-31T07:37:19.989Z article:section: Health og:title: Kids' Own Drivers Are Biggest DUI Death Risk, Study Says og:description: The greatest threat remains the adults behind the wheel of the car themselves, not strangers in other vehicles, og:url: https://time.com/87617/kids-own-drivers-are-biggest-dui-death-risk-study-says/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Kids' Own Drivers Are Biggest DUI Death Risk, Study Says twitter:description: The greatest threat remains the adults behind the wheel of the car themselves, not strangers in other vehicles, twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Kids' Own Drivers, Not Strangers, Are Biggest DUI Death Risk, Study Says by [Dan Hirschhorn](https://time.com/author/dan-hirschhorn/) ## Dan Hirschhorn May 5, 2014 11:58 AM UTC by [Dan Hirschhorn](https://time.com/author/dan-hirschhorn/) ## Dan Hirschhorn May 5, 2014 11:58 AM UTC The [biggest risk](http://bigstory.ap.org/article/kids-dui-deaths-their-drivers-pose-biggest-risk) to children when it comes to drunk drivers are the adults driving them, not strangers, according to a new study. The study, published Monday in the journal _Pediatrics_, found that child traffic deaths caused by drunk driving sharply declined in recent years, the Associated Press reports. But of the 2,344 children under 15 killed in such incidents between 2000 and 2010, about two-thirds were riding in a car with a drunk driver themselves, according to the study. Most of the adult drivers survived these crashes, suggesting not enough children were wearing seat belts, researchers say. The study, led by Dr. Kyran Quinlan of Northwestern University and researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, analyzed government data on traffic deaths. \[[_AP_](http://bigstory.ap.org/article/kids-dui-deaths-their-drivers-pose-biggest-risk)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/87617/kids-own-drivers-are-biggest-dui-death-risk-study-says/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/87617/kids-own-drivers-are-biggest-dui-death-risk-study-says/"},"headline":"Kids' Own Drivers, Not Strangers, Are Biggest DUI Death Risk, Study Says","datePublished":"2014-05-05T11:58:31.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-31T07:37:19.989Z","description":"A new study in the journal Pediatrics finds that child traffic deaths from drunk driving are on the decline in recent years but the greatest threat to their safety remains the adults behind the wheel of the car themselves, not strangers in other vehicles","url":"https://time.com/87617/kids-own-drivers-are-biggest-dui-death-risk-study-says/","keywords":["Research"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Dan Hirschhorn","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/dan-hirschhorn/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/research/","name":"Research"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/87617/kids-own-drivers-are-biggest-dui-death-risk-study-says/","name":"Kids' Own Drivers, Not Strangers, Are Biggest DUI Death Risk, Study Says"}}]}] ```