Survey: Fair amount of sex while driving among young S.D. motorists

When it comes to sex drive, at least among some young people in South Dakota, there's a fair amount of sex while driving going on.

From the state that brought you — and then took away — the "Don't Jerk and Drive" safety campaign comes a survey that revealed that nearly a third of men attending the University of South Dakota have had sex while driving, as have nearly 10 percent of women at the school in Vermillion.

Just last week, state officials decided to yank the "Don't Jerk and Drive" campaign after a legislator and some members of the public complained about the phrase's sexual innuendo.

The campaign was intended to raise awareness about the dangers of jerking a steering wheel, or overcorrecting, while driving on icy roads. Officials confessed that the double entendre was no accident.

The study of the South Dakota students, recently published in the journal "Accident Analysis and Prevention" and co-authored by USD Prof. Cindy Struckman-Johnson, received responses from 195 men and 511 women who volunteered to be surveyed.

The survey found:

• 33 percent of men and 9 percent of women had sex while driving.

• 9 percent of men and 29 percent of women had sex while as a passenger.

• The two most common acts were oral sex (70.3 percent) and genital touching (60.4 percent).

• About 11 percent engaged in vaginal intercourse.

• Sexual activity lasted from 1 to 10 minutes for 42.7 percent of the respondents.

• About 49 percent were traveling 61 to 80 miles per hour during sex.

• The most common driving errors reported were speeding (37.8 percent), drifting into another lane (36 percent) and letting go of the steering wheel (10.8 percent).

• Fewer than 2 percent nearly had a crash, and none said they actually had a crash.

Paul Walsh • 612-673-4482