More than a third (38%) of 18-24 year olds think driving under the influence of drugs is more unacceptable than driving under the influence of alcohol, a survey suggests.

And 13% of this age category also thought that drink driving was more socially acceptable than five years ago.

This contrasted starkly with 60% of 45-54 year olds who saw a drink driving conviction as less socially acceptable now, than five years ago.

Insurers 1st Central conducted a survey of 2,000 motorists’ attitudes to driving convictions to gauge social acceptability in 2013 and help inform business thinking related to risk factors.

Peter Creed, chief underwriting officer at 1st Central Insurance, said: "Public attitude to driving convictions influences behaviour and can even act as a deterrent if a conviction is seen as a significant social stigma.

“We are interested in public attitude as this can be translated into generic risk indicators and helps to inform our on-going thinking related to different underwriting principles."

Despite high profile advertising campaigns related to the risks of using a mobile phone whilst driving, the survey also revealed that only 6% rated this as highly socially unacceptable.

Meanwhile, speeding convictions were seen by men and women across all age ranges as the most acceptable conviction.

When asked about their own motoring record, 10% of all those surveyed had a driving conviction. Almost double the number of men (13%) declared a driving conviction compared to women (7%) and 15% of these men were convicted of drink driving compared to 9% of the women with convictions.

When looking at age, 25-34 year olds had the highest incidence of motoring convictions with 11% admitting to a conviction and this age group also had the highest rate of drink driving convictions at 17%.

Of the 7% of 45-54 years olds admitting to having a motoring conviction, 80% of these were for speeding.
 

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