2013 stats, Texting/Driving

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Updated May 8, 2013 10:29 PM

Texting while driving has become a greater hazard than drinking and driving among teenagers who openly acknowledge sending and reading text messages while behind the wheel of a moving vehicle.

The number of teens who are dying or being injured as a result of texting while driving has skyrocketed as mobile device technology has advanced. Researchers at Cohen Children's Medical Center in New Hyde Park estimate more than 3,000 annual teen deaths nationwide from texting and 300,000 injuries.

The habit now surpasses the number of teens who drink and drive -- a hazard that has been on a dramatic decline in recent years, researchers say.

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An estimated 2,700 young people die each year as a result of driving under the influence of alcohol and 282,000 are treated in emergency rooms for injuries suffered in motor-vehicle crashes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Dr. Andrew Adesman and a team of Cohen investigators found that while driving between September 2010 and December 2011, among 8,947 teenagers aged 15-18 nationwide, an estimated 49 percent of boys admitted to texting while driving compared with 45 percent of girls.

Texting also increased with age. Only 24 percent of 15-year-olds tapped out messages while driving, compared with 58 percent of 18-year-olds, the data showed. "A person who is texting can be as impaired as a driver who is legally drunk," said Adesman, noting that a texting driver is distracted from the movement of traffic and the function of his or her own vehicle.

The new data are in sharp contrast to findings about drinking and driving among teens. The CDC reported last fall that alcohol use among teen drivers has decreased by 54 percent since 1991. Texting, however, has quickly grown in the last five to seven years, Adesman said. "Fifty percent of high school students of driving age acknowledge texting while driving," said Adesman, chief of developmental and behavioral pediatrics at Cohen.

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The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration acknowledged Wednesday that distracted driving of all kinds -- including the use of handheld cellphones -- is a growing hazard.

Agency officials describe texting as among the worst of driver distractions because conversing by text simultaneously involves manual, visual and mental distractions.

Observational surveys cited by the agency suggest more than 100,000 drivers are texting at any given daylight moment, while more than 600,000 drivers are using handheld phones while operating a car.

As an expert in teen behavior, Adesman puts texting while driving in the same risk category as other hazardous activities, such as lack of seat belt use; drinking and driving; binge drinking; drug and tobacco use; unsafe sex, and tanning devices.

"We have very strong taboos against drinking and driving. Kids don't drink and drive every day. But some kids are out there texting and driving seven days a week -- and they admit it," Adesman said.

His research dovetails with a recent California study, which demonstrated that it isn't just the teens who are texting but a large proportion of moms, dads and even grandparents.

That analysis of 715 adults between the ages of 30 and 64 found that nearly two-thirds admitted to using a cellphone while driving with children in the car, and one-third acknowledged texting while driving.
 
Not too long ago I was in my truck and looked over as we were coming to a red light and the semi-driver next to me was steering with both forearms on the steering wheel and texting away with both hands/fingers.
 
There was an accident here a month or so ago, semi rear-ended a car stopped at a red light on highway. The driver of the car died, car was unrecognizable. The car had to be removed to a fire station so the body could be cut out of it. The semi driver was texting, according to evidence( I think it had in cab camera), the driver was eyes down for 8 seconds, and never got on the brakes until after the collision.
 
Now this is what they should be marching in D.C. against..seriously. No votes here though.
It is a terrible situation!!!

Originally Posted By: skyactiv
I as well as many others here who wont admit it, text while driving or at least look at text while driving.

Yea..I will admit looking while stopped. I know its not right though.
 
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Originally Posted By: skyactiv
I as well as many others here who wont admit it, text while driving or at least look at text while driving.


I won't....cause I DON'T do it. Period! And you best watch out cause if I catch you....
 
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I agree, texting while driving is at least as bad as drink driving. Other studies have shown the same for phoning, even hands free, since one's mind is distracted from the job in hand.
 
The only real way to stop it is banning cell phone use for anyone driving the car. That would put an end to drivers texting and when caught claiming they were just checking the time and such hogwash.
Cell phone records would confirm the operators phone was on while they were driving when they get stopped or in an accident, then take the license for 30 days first offense and a $500 fine.
 
Trav, how's that supposed to work? I hand my phone to my son to call his mom.... and I get suspended and fined?

I have to argue here. Each man or woman above the age of 18 is responsible for their own actions (under 18, the parents are responsible). If they choose to do something that injures someone or damages someone's property, they are responsible for making that person whole. We've already got a system to deal with incidents like that. We don't need any more laws or penalties- that's just giving the leviathan more food.

People need to respect other's lives, property, and rights. As much as we would like to punish specific groups of people for specific actions because they MAY result in a certain outcome, there's no way to be fair and impartial when attempting that. Somebody is always wrongly caught in that system.
 
Originally Posted By: SubieRubyRoo
Trav, how's that supposed to work? I hand my phone to my son to call his mom.... and I get suspended and fined?

I have to argue here. Each man or woman above the age of 18 is responsible for their own actions (under 18, the parents are responsible). If they choose to do something that injures someone or damages someone's property, they are responsible for making that person whole. We've already got a system to deal with incidents like that. We don't need any more laws or penalties- that's just giving the leviathan more food.

People need to respect other's lives, property, and rights. As much as we would like to punish specific groups of people for specific actions because they MAY result in a certain outcome, there's no way to be fair and impartial when attempting that. Somebody is always wrongly caught in that system.


There is no punishment great enough for those who take a life. Punishing the offender won't bring back the dead. The only way to stop this is to implement an industry wide mandate that all cell phones turn of automatically when inside a vehicle with the ignition turned on. If you have an emergency while in the car, you should have to turn off the ignition to use the phone. It's that simple...
 
I sort of agree with Grampi, but there's 3 other people in my car who AREN'T driving.

the Colorado phone synch won't let you read the texts on the screen until you are stopped, will "read" them to you and let you select a handful of pre scripted responses.

But being up so high, I can see EVERYONE around me texting.

And while we are fessing up, I've got special ringtones on my work phone for certain bosses. Doesn't matter how disciplined I try to be, when those tones ring out on the way to work, I do glance at the screen to see what sort of debacle I'm walking into in 15 minutes...I know it's wrong...so have to put it in my workbag when commuting.

Brings in an interesting modern phenomenon 'though...managers who will ring until it rings out, then ring again, and again, and again...they need you and it's right now.
 
Originally Posted By: Shannow
I sort of agree with Grampi, but there's 3 other people in my car who AREN'T driving.

They could still deactivate the cell phones, all the while providing a soundproof box for the driver to protect them from the fallout from the children with no cell phones.
wink.gif
 
Originally Posted By: SubieRubyRoo
Trav, how's that supposed to work? I hand my phone to my son to call his mom.... and I get suspended and fined?

I have to argue here. Each man or woman above the age of 18 is responsible for their own actions (under 18, the parents are responsible). If they choose to do something that injures someone or damages someone's property, they are responsible for making that person whole. We've already got a system to deal with incidents like that. We don't need any more laws or penalties- that's just giving the leviathan more food.

People need to respect other's lives, property, and rights. As much as we would like to punish specific groups of people for specific actions because they MAY result in a certain outcome, there's no way to be fair and impartial when attempting that. Somebody is always wrongly caught in that system.


Sometimes no amount of money can money can make a person "whole".
 
Originally Posted By: SubieRubyRoo
Trav, how's that supposed to work? I hand my phone to my son to call his mom.... and I get suspended and fined?

I have to argue here. Each man or woman above the age of 18 is responsible for their own actions (under 18, the parents are responsible). If they choose to do something that injures someone or damages someone's property, they are responsible for making that person whole. We've already got a system to deal with incidents like that. We don't need any more laws or penalties- that's just giving the leviathan more food.

People need to respect other's lives, property, and rights. As much as we would like to punish specific groups of people for specific actions because they MAY result in a certain outcome, there's no way to be fair and impartial when attempting that. Somebody is always wrongly caught in that system.


Then just disable functions with technology as Grampi suggest. The cell phone is an example of a convenience being abused and people are getting injured by it.
You cannot rely on people doing the right thing you have to force them one way or the other,
 
Well, considering that the very real possibility of time in prison doesn’t deter these people, fines certainly won’t. I completely agree that certain things can’t be made whole again- but I am also of the belief that if it’s your day to go, it doesn’t matter what you do.

I feel this is partly the same discussion we have about today’s kids- there is a distinctly different respect for authority when comparing millennials to anyone who is old enough to know principals and teachers used to dole out corporal punishment on a regular basis, at the business end of a wooden paddle. Obviously it’s typically the latter that shows greater respect.
 
Texting while driving ... Nature's way of weeding out the morons in the world.
 
Originally Posted By: ZeeOSix
Texting while driving ... Nature's way of weeding out the morons in the world.

And the innocent people they kill.
 
Originally Posted By: rooflessVW
Originally Posted By: ZeeOSix
Texting while driving ... Nature's way of weeding out the morons in the world.

And the innocent people they kill.


Unfortunately, sometimes yes ... just like all the other morons on the road that cause wrecks for whatever reason.
 
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