Most parents who have witnessed their teenagers engage in incessant text messaging worry about their teen climbing behind the wheel and engaging in text messaging while operating a motor vehicle. Ironically, a recent study suggests that mom and dad are far more likely to engaging in texting when stuck in traffic than their kids. An AT&T survey revealed that while 43 percent of teens admit to text messaging and driving virtually half of all adults surveyed admitted to engaging in this unsafe driving practice.
Although it is surprising that adult drivers are more likely than teens to text and drive, it is even more disturbing that the survey results show that adults that engage in this activity know what they are doing is wrong. The survey involved over a thousand AT&T customers, and almost all of them (98 percent) admitted that they knew text messaging behind the wheel was unsafe and wrong.
This research raises new concerns about the scope of the text messaging problem. Traffic safety experts, regulatory agencies and state and federal lawmakers have enacted new laws and devoted more resources to discourage drivers from text messaging. Almost all states have enacted ban on texting and driving but some of these bans only apply to novice teen drivers. Thus, this new information about the number of adult drivers who text is important because there are only 10 million teen drivers but more than 180 million adult drivers.
This recent poll by AT&T is consistent with result in other studies suggesting that texting is a growing problem among all drivers. The Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) found that almost a third of all drivers acknowledge that they draft, send and review text messages when operating a motor vehicle. The Department of Transportation (DOT) reports that distracted driving now kills a third of the number of people that die in collisions involving intoxicated drivers. While there is no tracking of accident fatalities limited expressly to texting and driving, text messaging is considered the most dangerous form of driving distraction.
There also is a growing amount of evidence that the danger of being involved in a text message driving accident is getting worse despite all of the new laws and public information campaigns aimed at limiting this activity. In the AT&T survey, sixty percent of those who admitted to text messaging when driving indicated they did not engage in such behavior three year prior to the survey. The number of fatal texting accidents also rose during a recent one year period by ten percent.
If you or someone you love is injured or a family member dies in a Missouri texting and driving car accident, we urge you to contact us if you have questions. Our experienced Missouri auto accident attorneys at Hubbard & Kurtz, LLP work diligently to obtain financial compensation for our clients’ injuries so contact us toll free at (877) 535-1163 to see how we can help!