The News Wheel
No Comments

Teens are Doing Homework and Changing Clothes while Driving

Decrease Font Size Increase Font Size Text Size Print This Page
Texting and driving is another reason that motor vehicles crashes are the leading cause of teenage death.

Distracted driving is fueling a significant number of teen car crashes

While some young people reportedly enjoy having sex while driving, some of their nerdier (albeit equally reckless) peers apparently like to do homework when they get behind the wheel. Many teen drivers are also applying makeup, switching out contact lenses, and even changing clothes while driving, according to a new study published in the Journal of Transportation Safety and Security.

“Teens are busy, I guess,” deadpanned study leader David Hurwitz, an Oregon State University professor of transportation engineering.

And while costume and contact changes are pretty ill-advised decisions, they’re not the worst (or most common) risks that teens are taking.

“The absolute worst is texting on a cell phone, which is a whole group of distractions,” Hurwitz says. “With texting, you’re doing something besides driving, thinking about something besides driving, and looking at the wrong thing.”

Distracted driving is one of the main reasons that teen drivers age 16 to 19 are three times as likely to be involved in a fatal car crash as drivers who are 20 and older. Furthermore, recent studies show that anything that takes a driver’s attention away from the road for two seconds or more will increase the risk of an accident from four to 24 times.

“More experienced drivers learn how to control these distractions, but we’re finding the most problems with the very young driver, within six months of getting a license,” Hurwitz adds.

In order to protect them, parents are encouraged to talk with their teens about the dangers of distracted driving.

As usual, the cleverest response to this (real) study comes from The Onion’s (fake) “American Voices” section:

Source: The Onion

In other news, Chevrolet couldn’t have picked a better time to introduce its industry-first Teen Driver System.

Via: Tech Times