Driving While Texting Sends a Bad Message

As though drunken drivers haven't made our roads dangerous enough, we are now faced with an ever-increasing danger from drivers using phones while driving. Of particular concern are teenage drivers who text message behind the wheel.

Annually, thousands of teen drivers are involved in serious and fatal car crashes while using a phone while driving. According to a 2007 teen driving research conducted by SADD (Students Against Destructive Decisions) and Liberty Mutual Insurance Group, 37% of teens admit to text messaging while driving. This accounts for the biggest distraction for teens while driving. Among teens age sixteen to nineteen who are involved in fatal crashes, 21% were using a cell phone. This is an alarming trend, and experts expect it to grow by 4% every year.

Painfully, I became aware of the dangers of this problem last summer, when a friend, an athletic guy I have played tennis with for years, was killed while riding his bike in Highlands Ranch, Colorado. The teenage driver of the car that hit him was text messaging when the accident occurred.

A few months earlier, my girlfriend, P.J., sat at a traffic light on her way home from work. In the rearview mirror, she saw a big moving truck slowly creep up on her. Before she could react, the truck pushed her minivan into the SUV in front of her. She felt powerless to prevent it. As she said, everything seemed to happen in slow motion. It didn't make sense until she learned that the driver of the truck, a young man in his early twenties, was busy text messaging his girlfriend and had taken his foot off the brake pedal. It's amazing how much damage can be done at five miles per hour.

Like other hard learned lessons, all drivers need to be aware of the serious danger of driving while operating a cell phone. Many states have adopted legislation regarding teen driving, placing restrictions on how and when teens car operate a vehicle. Parents now need to reinforce this message.

What can parents do?

Know the law. The Governors Highway Safety Association provides a description of each state's laws at www.statehighwaysafety.org.

Create family rules about driving, with clear penalties for breaking the rules. Some examples:

Absolutely no cell phone use, including text messaging behind the wheel
No use of alcohol or other drugs
For teen drivers, a limit of one friend in the car without an adult
No teen driving after 10 p.m.
Keep two hands on the wheel
No distractions while driving, such as: No changing CDs or handling iPods, no eating, no putting on makeup Is it hard to enforce such rules? You bet.

According to the SADD/Liberty Mutual studies, 52% of teens say their parents are not likely to enforce self-imposed rules. What does this say about us as parents? Maybe it's time we start making parents

You can find SADD's Contract for Life, a teen driving contract, at http://www.sadd.org/contract.htm.