Teens Who Text While Driving Are Endangering Themselves And Others

Photo credit: ydhsu

Teens love to text: teenagers are sending 10,000 text messages every year and the numbers are growing. Many of them spend the majority of their spare time on the web, and are heavy users of social media websites.

While many argue that constant texting by teens is a waste of time, others say texting teaches them important life skills: technology, after all, is the future, and learning to manage it responsibly is an important lesson not just for the present, but also for the future.

However, many teens are so addicted to texting, that they text while driving.

According to a new study, (and hey, I could have told you the results without doing a study) driving while text messaging is extremely dangerous - even more so than talking on a cell phone.

The teens that took part in a series of simulated driving-while-doing-other-stuff  experiments drove badly, steering the virtual vehicles erratically, weaving in and out of lanes and running over virtual people.

Their driving was worst when they were texting, probably because texting forces people to look down in addition to moving their fingers.

The study authors are aiming to increase community awareness about this problem, especially since texting while driving is a rapidly increasing problem.

According to a recent study by the American Automobile Association, the risk of a car accident increases by 50% for people who text message while driving. A few states have banned texting while driving, “and they all should,” say the study authors.

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