Teens and Distracted Driving - What You Need to Know and How to Eliminate It
Misconception that Teens are the Most Distracted Drivers
We all know distracted driving is a problem. However, there seems to be this misconception that teens are the biggest culprit of this dangerous driving habit. The truth is teens are actually the 3rd lowest of all age groups when it comes to engaging in distracted driving, pointing to the fact that there needs to be a shift in focus to include older drivers in the discussion of preventing distracted driving. But, this doesn’t excuse teens from this dangerous habit. There is still a lot of work to do to eliminate distracted driving by teenage drivers.
Distracted Driving is a factor in 84% of driving fatalities
Teens and Distracted Driving Statistics
Even though teens are not the worst offenders, they are still a group that needs to be targeted with messaging about the dangers of distracted driving and the need to avoid it at all costs. Here are some stats about teens and distracted driving:
- A quarter of teens respond to a text message once or more every time they drive. 20 percent of teens and 10 percent of parents admit that they have extended multi-message text conversations while driving. (UMTRI)
- 10% of all drivers under the age of 20 involved in fatal crashes were reported as distracted at the time of the crash (Distraction.gov)
- Nearly 91 percent of teens witnessed their parents talking on their cell phone, and 90 percent admitted to doing it themselves. When it comes to texting and driving, nearly 59 percent of parents were caught doing it and 78 percent of teens admitted they had done it, too, once they saw their parents engage in the behavior. (Liberty Mutual and SAAD Study)
Based on these statistics, it is abundantly clear that parents are providing a poor example for their teen drivers. Teens pick up driving habits from their parents, meaning that parents play a large role in preventing new teen drivers from being distracted drivers when they get behind the wheel.
Prevention Starts Before Teens get their Driver’s License
Children need to be taught from the outset to avoid distracted driving at all costs. It starts with parents modelling safe driving behaviour every time they are behind the wheel. Distracted driving is a conscious decision and we need to make the choice not to engage in distracted driving practices a no-brainer - We need to make distracted driving as socially unacceptable as drinking and driving.
However, we also need to be cognizant of the fact that it will take some time for drivers to adapt, just like it did with drinking and driving. Changing distracted driving is also a change in culture. This means that every new driver that gets behind the wheel needs to be taught how to drive the right way – and to avoid distracted driving.