With Distracted Driving Awareness Month wrapped up, a number of surveys and statistics are beginning to roll in from the various campaigns that took place in April. One of the more staggering figures comes from a recent survey conducted by AT&T aimed at figuring out the current impact that teens have on distracted driving cases.
Within the results of AT&T’s recent survey, it was found that nearly half of teens today are still texting and driving. Even with the increase in texting and handheld laws in numerous states throughout the country, nearly 43 percent of teenagers admitted to the practice during the survey. Another part of the survey asked teenagers if they thought the practice was dangerous, to which nearly all of them (97 percent) agreed that it was.
While it’s not very surprising that so many teenagers admitted to texting while driving, it is troubling that so many actually view it as a problem while still doing it anyways. Certainly there can’t be an expectation of a steep decrease in distracted driving cases with teenagers in the near future, but the fact that so many see it being a problem could be a positive sign.
Building awareness is one of the first steps in the long term goal of changing drivers’ mindsets and making the roads safer. For teenagers, one of the keys is and will always be peer pressure. If awareness can be built to a level where teenagers are regularly speaking to other teenagers about minimizing their use of cell phones in the car its likely going to be the most effective practice.
Certainly there are plenty of other steps that can be taken to properly inform teenagers of distracted driving as well. One of the most important may be driving behavior set forth by parents at a younger age. If a teenager grows up seeing their mom or dad using a cell phone from the backseat, it’s likely that they will follow suit regularly once they are old enough to drive. While committing to minimizing your own use of phones while driving as a parent may not be effective for children’s future habits, it will at least set forth the feeling that using a phone in the car is not okay.
Given the increased attention to distracted driving by EndDD and numerous other organizations, there should be strong hope that cases can be minimized in the future. A strong dedication to increasing awareness and setting forth more state laws should continue to show the dangers of distracted driving for teenagers and drivers of all ages.
Joel Feldman
Joel Feldman is the father of the late Casey Feldman and founder of the Casey Feldman Foundation and its sponsored project, EndDD.org. He has been a practicing attorney for 34 years and a shareholder in the law firm of Anapol Weiss in Philadelphia. He received a masters in counseling in 2013 and speaks throughout the U.S. and Canada to teens and adults, changing attitudes and behaviors through the science based, End Distracted Driving program. Joel also provides death notification training to law enforcement and the medical community. Joel can be reached at [email protected]
