Shocking statistics concerning the prevalence of teen distracted driving have been released recently by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). According to an anonymous nationwide survey that was conducted in 2011, 58 percent of high school seniors and 43 percent of high school juniors admitted that they had texted or emailed while driving during the month prior to the survey. While earlier studies had indicated that teen distracted driving was a common occurrence, this recent survey revealed that the dangerous practice was much more widespread.
“I’m not surprised. I’m not surprised at all,” said Vicki Rimasse, whose son was involved in a minor motor vehicle accident earlier in the year while he was texting. The New Jersey mom required her son to take a safe driving class following the fender bender. “It caused me to be a lot more cautious,” her son said, although he confessed that he still texts while he is behind the wheel.
Amanda Lenhart, a senior researcher at the Pew Research Center in Washington is not surprised by the new statistics concerning distracted driving among teens. Ms. Lenhart studies teen use of technology. According to her studies, texting is the most common method of communication among young people, and a typical teenager sends and receives approximately 100 texts each day. Lenhart has conducted focus groups on the topic with teens. Some teens admit that they know that texting while driving is not safe, but believe that it is safer if they hold the phone up so they can text and see the road at the same time, she said.
This is the first CDC survey to ask about texting while driving.
For more information about motor vehicle accidents caused by texting and driving, contact the Ohio cell phone accident lawyers at Clark, Perdue & List.
Source: MSNBC,”CDC: Nearly 60 percent of teens text while driving,” Mike Stobbe, Associated Press, June 7, 2012.