Teenagers can be particularly susceptible to distracted driving compared to older, more experienced drivers. This statement was confirmed by statistics provided by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), showing that 16% of all distraction-related fatal crashes in 2008 were caused by drivers under the age of 20. Many teenage drivers admit to talking on their phones or texting while driving, which are some of the riskiest driving behaviors, as they create cognitive and manual distractions, causing drivers to take their hands off the wheel and their eyes off the road.
Considering that distracted driving is the leading cause of car accidents, law enforcement agencies and various organizations against texting and driving have been trying to increase public awareness of the risks that it brings. The latest addition to the efforts of eradicating distracted driving is a supplement from the Journal of Adolescent Health, which focuses on the causes of this behavior and provides a few potential solutions that could help mitigate the epidemic that has been present on America’s roadways for years.
The supplement explains what causes newly licensed teenage drivers to get distracted, and tries to determine just how big of a role technology plays in creating driver distractions. Furthermore, it explains how much of teen drivers’ susceptibility to distractions can be attributed to their parents’ distracted behavior while behind the wheel, as many teenagers admit that they regularly see their parents talking on the phone or texting while driving. Additionally, the influence of peer passengers is explored, which is perhaps one of the most overlooked factors that contribute to distracted driving among teenagers.
This will be a great tool for researchers trying to determine the causes of distracted driving and come up with a solution to this problem. It will come in handy for legislators, too, as they try to create laws that could help prevent distracted driving. While there are distracted driving laws in most U.S. states, they have proven to be insufficiently effective in terms of reducing the number of repeat distracted driving offenses among teenage drivers, which is supposed to be one of the main goals of such laws.
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Dr. C. Raymond Bingham, from the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute, said that the increasing implementation of technology for entertainment and communication purposes in new vehicles, along with the employment of autonomous driving technologies, makes the distracted driving problem that much more serious. “As automated functions increase in vehicles, drivers are likely to feel that their attention to the road is less necessary,” says Dr. Bingham, and explains that campaigns aimed at educating the public of the risks of distracted driving and the threat it poses to public health and safety have to target people’s tolerance for distracted driving, which should help change dangerous driving behavior.