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TEENS KNOW BUT IGNORE RISKS OF DISTRACTED DRIVING


Bridgestone Americas recently commissioned a study about distracted driving. Distracted driving is a recurring problem on our nation’s roadways. It killed 3,092 people in 2010 and injured 416,000 according to Distraction.gov The Bridgestone study found that:

· Parents often set bad examples

· Girls are more likely to drive distracted than boys

· Many young drivers know the risks of distracted driving, but ignore them

The study polled more than 2,000 drivers aged 15 to 21 via on online survey. The survey showed that teens and young adults aged 21 and younger do not believe that they could be hurt while driving distracted. This means that they do not think of the consequences of hurting other drivers should they crash. Many said they were not prone to distraction. In fact, a spokesperson for Bridgestone Americas told of a young woman in college driving home to see her parents. She was posting to Facebook every 90 seconds before she crashed and killed herself.

A review of the study showed that the question, “Given that driving while distracted can be dangerous, why do you do it?” gave the reviewers the impression that that teens thought they were invincible. What is scary is that some of the drivers said they were safe drivers just because they had not been in an accident or had not received a ticket.

One-third of the students polled also said that they read texts “on occasion” while driving. Of the students polled, one-quarter said that they did not think talking on the cell phone was considered distracted driving. The study also found that drivers who use a hand-held device, whether for talking on the phone, texting or posting to social media sites while driver are four times more likely to get in an accident that is serious enough to kill or to injure them.

Source: New York Times, “Understanding Motives Behind Teens’ Distracted Driving,” Tanha Mohn

Our law firm represents people who have been injured by inattentive drivers. For more information, please visit our texting while driving page.