How Texting And Driving Affect Teens
Every year, nearly 390,000 injuries happen from auto accidents, and 11 teenagers die daily due to texting and driving. You risk injury or killing other road users as a young person with a promising future if you text and drive or engage in distracted driving.
Regardless of your driving experience, texting while driving should be avoided as it tends to reduce focus. This makes it more dangerous than other risky behaviors, such as speeding, calling, or drinking while driving. Statistics by NHTSA show that 3,142 lives were claimed due to fatal crashes in 2020 due to distracted driving.
Causes of teenage texting and driving
Cell phone use while driving puts you at risk of potential harm, irrespective of what you do with it. We check our phones more than 300 times per day, about once every 4 minutes. This might portray the possibility of cell phone use for texting or phone calls while driving, but it isn’t worth your life, so teens texting and driving must be avoided. Below are further examples of the causes of teen drivers texting while driving:
1. To communicate with parents:
According to one survey conducted on teenage drivers from 31 states between the ages of 15 to 18, many youths who responded to the study claimed that using mobile phones to call or text their parents while driving was due to parental expectations for rapid communication.
They forget that sending or reading a text while driving takes the driver’s eyes off the road for an average of five seconds. If you are going 55 mph, that is like driving the length of a football field blindfolded, which can result in fatal crashes that can lead to loss of lives and properties.
2. Flirting Online:
Teens routinely flirt and converse on social media using their phones. In research by Pew Research Center, 57% of teenagers began their relationships online, resulting in a higher tendency of continuous and frequent texting. Flirting has to do with emotions. Whether happy or sad, extreme emotions while driving can have adverse results.
3. Bad parental example
A teen driver will likely practice what they see guardians do. An article by USA Today reports that about 59 — 91 % of teenagers have seen their parents texting or talking on the phone while driving a motor vehicle. In contrast, 79 percent of the kids admit to texting while driving, and 90 percent of teens admit to chatting on the phone while driving despite acknowledging it was a dangerous thing.
It is, therefore, important for adult drivers with a wealth of experience to set a good driving lifestyle free from any form of distraction for younger ones to emulate and follow.
4. Responding to expected emails
It is better to avoid all forms of distracted driving, like responding to e-mail texts from close friends, relations, or associates, and reckless talk with passengers or family who are in the car.
Text messaging while driving is dangerous because drivers have to take their eyes off the road with one hand on the steering wheel while reading a text message. Doing this might result in deviating from the driving lane. If you are to use your cell phone while driving, you must park by or wait until you get to your destination. There is nothing so vital in your email or text that will make you jeopardize your own or others’ safety.
Effects of texting and driving on teens
Many factors are stealing the attention of young drivers, especially in today’s most technologically advanced world, where many things temporarily occupy your mind and keep your hands, eyes, and minds away from the wheel while driving. Teens are mostly found guilty as they are prone to easy distractions.
Below are some effects of texting and driving on teens, which parents must know to enlighten and educate teens better.
1. Less attention to traffic and safety driving ethics
Attention is important while driving as it keeps you conversant and attentive to road users and other drivers. Aside from that, you can respond promptly to traffic and obey driving ethics such as using a seat belt. But you don’t pay attention when driving, there is a possibility of a devastating accident with a severity that depends on the duration spent texting and the speed at which the vehicle is in motion.
2. Suspension of driver’s license
Teen drivers are more likely to lose their driving license when involved in any form of distracted driving, dangerous to themselves and other road users.
Suspension of driver’s license can be up to six months and more depending on the severity of traffic violations and damage caused. Hence the need to be law-abiding and avoid distractions while driving.
3. Increase Car Insurance Rate
Distracted driving, such as texting and driving, is a dangerous behavior that has the possibility of causing significant damage that can result in an increased insurance rate, especially in teenagers, depending on the law of your state and insurer.
According to Forbes, auto insurance companies’ average rate hike for at-fault car accidents that resulted in injury and damages was 21% for State Farm, 73% for Geico, and 40% for USAA. At the same time, Allstate has an annual average rate of $3,103.
Distracted driving as a teenager can result in an enormous financial fallout that can last years.
4. Road Accident and Death
According to the CDC, car accidents are the second most common cause of mortality for teens in America. There were about 2,400 teen fatalities in the US among ages 13 to 19 in 2019. Based on statistics, seven teenagers die in distracted driving accidents, and hundreds suffer from injuries with billions of dollars spent on medical expenses and lost wages caused by distracted driving.
Risky behavior and conduct, due to distracted drivers, specifically male and novice drivers, can be devastating. Therefore, getting out of the car before texting or reading text messages is vital to eliminate any dangerous situation.
Parents should ensure strict punishment that will encourage teenage high school students and other teenage novice drivers to do the right thing and ensure better driving safety.
How to avoid texting while driving for teens
There are several ways to prevent your teens from texting while driving to avoid car crash risks. You can do this by installing text-blocking phone apps, explaining the risk involved in texting and driving, and showing them good examples of driving, as explained below.
1. Keep the phone out of sight and reach
Though it might seem difficult to keep the phone out of sight and reach when driving, it is possible. Teens, these days, are addicted to their cell phones, and it is necessary to educate them as to why they need to avoid texting and driving. This makes it easier to understand why they should put their cell phones far from their wheel, reach and sight when driving.
As guidance, you can keep the cell phone of your teen driver in a glove box, windshield or dashboard mount, purse, jacket, driver’s seat pocket, and backseat when driving. You can also turn off the phone to avoid distractions like calls and text messages that might instigate the act of getting the cell phone used.
2. Set an example of good driving habits for your children
Many teens adapt and learn quickly from what they see. It is best to practice what you advise your teen drivers to do by avoiding all forms of risky driving behaviors. This makes advice more meaningful as there is no unfairness on your part.
3. Explain the risk of texting and driving to your teens
Make your teens understand that texting while driving is six times as likely as drunk driving to result in a car accident.
Talk further about other dangers associated with texting and driving that they might not understand, like an increase in insurance premiums and driving license suspension.
The earlier, the better it is to discuss this with your teen drivers to keep them, friends, and households safe from car crashes resulting in road accidents.
4. Install text blocking cell phone apps
Some apps cut off access to the internet to prevent distracted driving as they use the phones’ GPS signals. Others monitor and report texting when the vehicle is in motion. These apps can be installed on teens’ phones to monitor what they do while driving. Examples of such apps as recommended by the American Safety Council include:
- AT&T’s DriveMode
- DriveSafe.ly
- Text No More
- Sprint’s Drive First
- Sprint’s Safely Go
- ThisAppSavesLives.com
In summary, teens texting while driving affects them negatively and must be avoided to reduce the rate of car accidents and deaths on our roads. Parents should live by example to teach good driving habits to teens so they become better drivers.
