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Survey: 84% of teens admit they’re driving distracted

Posted Aug 2, 2010 by Beth Gaddis

Updated Aug 2, 2010 at 09:43 AM

Here’s a scary statistic: 84% of teens admit they text or chat on their cell phones while driving, even though they know their actions could make it more likely they’ll have an accident.

The survey by Seventeen magazine and auto club AAA highlights the difficulty of the nation’s efforts to stop texting while driving, especially among young drivers. 

USAToday published the findings, including:

•Teens gave researchers startling reasons why they engage in distracted driving: It takes only a split second (41%); they don’t think they’ll get hurt (35%); it makes driving less boring (22%); and they’re used to being connected to people all the time (21%).

•Teens driving their own vehicles are more prone to distracted driving than those who share an automobile with others. For instance, 20% of teens who share vehicles had texted while driving, compared with 35% of teens with their own cars.

On the Today Show this morning, an editor from Seventeen and a spokeswoman for AAA said most teens surveyed said they had felt scared at some point while riding in a car with a distracted teen driver.  What they didn’t know was how to get teens to stop.  (Watch the video.)

In England, public health officials created this PSA to scare kids into paying attention.  If you haven’t seen it, watch it now.  Better yet, email it to your kids.