By R. Bruce Wright, CPCU
If your experience leads you to think that it just teenagers who are guilty of sending text messages while driving, you may have another think coming!
According to a recent poll from the Pew Internet and American Life Project, adults are just as likely as teens to have texted while driving and are substantially more likely to have talked on the phone while driving. The poll, released in June of 2010, contrasted its adult results from earlier this year with a 2009 survey of teenagers. Both were conducted for Pew by Princeton Survey Research Associates International.
The surveys asked five simple questions:
Have you ever experienced or done any of the following? Have you ever...
- sent or read a text message while driving?
- been in a car when the driver was sending or reading text messages on their cell phone?
- talked on a cell phone while driving?
- been in a car when the driver used a cell phone in a way that put themselves or others in danger?
- physically bumped into another person or object because you were distracted by talking or texting on your phone?
In response to Q1, in the latest poll, 47% of adults admitted that they had texted while driving, while in the poll of driving age teens 34% those who used their phones for sending text messages said they had done so while driving. In addition, 49% of adults say they have been passengers in a car when the driver was sending or reading text messages on their cell phone. (Q2)
Adults also lead when it comes to talking on cell phones while driving. According to the latest Pew poll, 75% of cell phone-owning adults say they have talked on the phone while driving, compared with just over half (52%) of 16- and 17-year-olds in the earlier survey. And 44% of adults and 40% of teenagers in the two polls say they have been passengers in vehicles whose drivers used their cell phones “in a dangerous way” or in a way that “put themselves or others in danger.”(Q4)
Finally, one in six adults who own cell phones (17%) go further and say they have actually bumped into a person or an object because they were distracted by their cell phones.
Other studies have concluded that drivers using their phones while driving are four times more likely to cause an accident than those not engaged. These results are reported in a prior article that you can access by navigating to it throught the "RE-marks Archive" tab above.
The Pew study found that 82% of American adults 18 or older own cell phones and of these adults 58% use text messaging. The earlier poll found that 75% of 12- to 17-year-olds own phones and 66% send text messages. Sending text messages while driving is prohibited in 28 states, the Pew report said, and seven (plus the District of Columbia) prohibit all hand-held cell phone use on the road. Local prohibitions are also found in some cities and towns. The full survey report can be accessed here.