More U.S. Teens Killed Texting While Driving Than Drinking

CommanderFrank

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According to a new study, deaths and injuries from texting while driving has surpassed drunk driving and is now the number one cause of teen deaths on the road. The survey showed that 300K teens are injured with 3K dying due to texting behind the wheel.

"The reality is kids aren't drinking seven days per week — they are carrying their phones and texting seven days per week, so you intuitively know this a more common occurrence,"
 
.... intuitively? Jumping to conclusions, are they? Sounds like something they just sort of pulled out of nowhere.
 
Isn't drinking as a teenager illegal in the first place in all of the US? I vaguely remember drinking and especially drink driving having some pretty harsh penalties for teenagers in the US. (I didn't get my licence over here as a teenager, so maybe a native can correct me if I'm wrong).

Saying more people die because of texting than drinking when you don't actually know the ratio of drivers texting to drivers drinking makes it pretty statistically insignificant.

As I've said previously on this forum, I'm not really against people texting and driving, I'm against people being idiots and texting and driving when it is not safe to do so. But I could definitely see the benefit of having some insanely harsher penalties for new drivers texting and driving to drive home the fact it does increase risks. The same way that in Australia the legal blood alcohol limit for new drivers is 0.00 and for full licenced drivers it's 0.05.
 
Saying more people die because of texting than drinking when you don't actually know the ratio of drivers texting to drivers drinking makes it pretty statistically insignificant.

Its in relation to TEENAGERS, not overall.


As I've said previously on this forum, I'm not really against people texting and driving, I'm against people being idiots and texting and driving when it is not safe to do so..

When exactly is it safe to text and drive? Definitely curious.
 
No shock, I saw a girl texting as she made a left turn the other day. She wasn't paying much attention and almost hit someone.
 
When exactly is it safe to text and drive? Definitely curious.

I generally think it never is, but if you are at a red light then I guess it's OK. The only thing I have ever done is check my phone, I find texting to be way too risky when driving so I just don't even try it.
 
When exactly is it safe to text and drive? Definitely curious.

not a teenager but when i do text in the car it's at stoplights or locked traffic, if shit starts to move in traffic and i'm not on the ball i get honked to move, then i set the phone down til it's dead again.

lights, usually i'll shoot what i have to say quickly then put the phone back down.

i dont ever do that shit while the car is moving though just because people around here drive in ways that terrify me.
 
When exactly is it safe to text and drive? Definitely curious.

I'd like to know this too. There have been studies proving that humans in general are absolutely terrible multitaskers, and this applies to driving as well. Even hands-free phone calls are just as bad as holding the phone. We tend to go into auto-pilot mode, which is really not that safe when it comes to driving.

At least with a phone call though, you have some semblance of awareness, in that you're at least looking at the road. And the sad thing is, adults text and drive more than teens.

I already almost fear for my life every day while driving to work due to the innate bad drivers around here. I don't need problems compounded. I'd just like to have at least 1 day where there wasn't an accident on my way to/from work. (Preferably, I'd say more, but hey, it's a start).
 
When exactly is it safe to text and drive? Definitely curious.

That would be never. We got along just fine for you know... 90 odd years without texting behind the wheel. You're who life isn't going to come crashing down around you by delaying a text for 10 minutes.
 
not a teenager but when i do text in the car it's at stoplights or locked traffic, if shit starts to move in traffic and i'm not on the ball i get honked to move, then i set the phone down til it's dead again.

lights, usually i'll shoot what i have to say quickly then put the phone back down.

i dont ever do that shit while the car is moving though just because people around here drive in ways that terrify me.

It's people that "only do it when stopped or at a light" that love to not pay attention and let their car drift forward into another person's slowly, hitting them sometimes.... :(. I've seen WAY too many people texting at a stoplight who don't notice they let off the brake a little and are too distracted that then hit someone else's car. I give some credit for not doing it during normal driving, though.
 
do phones have a speech to text feature?

i dont think mine does, seems like something that should be around.
 
That would be never. We got along just fine for you know... 90 odd years without texting behind the wheel. You're who life isn't going to come crashing down around you by delaying a text for 10 minutes.

Me me me, entitlement generation, etc.... the world revolves around them and now now now... fools. :p But yeah, it's amazing how so many people being so excessively self-centered and having no respect for those around them, cause things like this news article to come out. Heck, I bet the text could even wait for the whole night without causing anything to happen! If it's an emergency, you should be pulling over. :)
 
Its in relation to TEENAGERS, not overall.

When exactly is it safe to text and drive? Definitely curious.

Reading comprehension is not many people's strong suit nowadays ;).

And exactly, it's never safe to be doing so, to answer your rhetorical question here.
 
I'll be honest, I drove inebriated quite a lot when I was younger. To be clear, that was a good twenty-ish years ago when I much younger and much more foolish. I also drove a few times over the past few years while trying to text. I can say—as objectively as one can about this sort of thing—that I was a much more dangerous driver while trying to text. At least when drinking my attention was fully on the road, as distorted as that attention was.

It's something about how the brain is wired. It seems like texting and driving share the same brain-function space, and once excludes the other.
 
I'll be honest, I drove inebriated quite a lot when I was younger. To be clear, that was a good twenty-ish years ago when I much younger and much more foolish. I also drove a few times over the past few years while trying to text. I can say—as objectively as one can about this sort of thing—that I was a much more dangerous driver while trying to text. At least when drinking my attention was fully on the road, as distorted as that attention was.

It's something about how the brain is wired. It seems like texting and driving share the same brain-function space, and once excludes the other.

First off, thanks for your honesty... it's an interesting perspective. As far as the texting/driving thing, yeah, it's basically asking your brain to switch tasks rapidly, which is scientifically proven to diminish your capabilities in all of the activities you're doing that between when done too quickly. In the case of texting + driving, it's that much worse...
 
Its in relation to TEENAGERS, not overall.
Yeah, that's what I meant, you don't know the ratio of texting teenage drivers to drinking teenage drivers.
When exactly is it safe to text and drive? Definitely curious.
Sending a text I think is pretty hard, reading a text, not so much. But yeah, I'd say if you're on an open road with no one around for a mile in each direction, I don't think it's too dangerous to read a text, maybe type a few letters, can't say I've had too many attempts to type while driving though.
It's people that "only do it when stopped or at a light" that love to not pay attention and let their car drift forward into another person's slowly, hitting them sometimes.... :(. I've seen WAY too many people texting at a stoplight who don't notice they let off the brake a little and are too distracted that then hit someone else's car. I give some credit for not doing it during normal driving, though.
At stop lights I'll sometimes text just to reply to a missed call or message. Can't say I've ever lifted my foot off the brake while doing it... seems you'd have to have some motor skill issues to not be able to keep your foot planted on the brake. I can safely say I've never inadvertently lifted my foot off the brake or missed a light change while typing text at traffic lights. Not saying I've never done something stupid or dangerous in a car, I have... but nothing that I can link back to mobile phone use. When it gets too dangerous, I put down the phone and focus on driving or pull over and use the phone if it's something I can't wait to do.
 
At stop lights I'll sometimes text just to reply to a missed call or message. Can't say I've ever lifted my foot off the brake while doing it... seems you'd have to have some motor skill issues to not be able to keep your foot planted on the brake. I can safely say I've never inadvertently lifted my foot off the brake or missed a light change while typing text at traffic lights. Not saying I've never done something stupid or dangerous in a car, I have... but nothing that I can link back to mobile phone use. When it gets too dangerous, I put down the phone and focus on driving or pull over and use the phone if it's something I can't wait to do.

Yeah, not aimed at you in particular, you sound like you're a responsible driver :). Just was commenting off of that.
 
When exactly is it safe to text and drive? Definitely curious.

There are way more people at any given moment driving and texting without incident than there are people who are texting and driving and having an accident because of it.

If is statistically safer to drive without texting than it is to drive while texting? Yeah, but what's even safer? Not driving at all. If you're going for maximum safety, don't leave your house.
 
It's people that "only do it when stopped or at a light" that love to not pay attention and let their car drift forward into another person's slowly, hitting them sometimes.... :(. I've seen WAY too many people texting at a stoplight who don't notice they let off the brake a little and are too distracted that then hit someone else's car. I give some credit for not doing it during normal driving, though.

How... Do you move and not notice?

I don't understand this, one bit. I notice when my car revs it's idle by 100rpm, let alone a slow creep forward.

Having said that, I use google voice to text and drive. It's nice :)
 
There are way more people at any given moment driving and texting without incident than there are people who are texting and driving and having an accident because of it.

If is statistically safer to drive without texting than it is to drive while texting? Yeah, but what's even safer? Not driving at all. If you're going for maximum safety, don't leave your house.

By that logic, it's okay to drink and drive now because "statistically" more people do it without incident than those who get into accidents. Wow @ some of the idiocy in this thread.
 
By that logic, it's okay to drink and drive now because "statistically" more people do it without incident than those who get into accidents. Wow @ some of the idiocy in this thread.

It's all about justification. Drinking and driving has been so demonized—and not without reason—that assholes who text and drive are offended when they are lumped in with drunk drivers.
 
I commute to work by bicycle every day. I can't count the number of times my life has been put in danger by people fucking with their phones behind the wheel (something that is totally illegal in my state). The fact that people are so willing to put other's lives in danger for something so trivial is ridiculous. My life if worth more than your status update, kiddies.

When I do have to drive and have to take an important call I do this crazy thing called "Pulling off the road like a responsible member of society." Maybe it's too "old school", I don't know.
 
No such thing as being a responsible driver while texting and driving.

Is it really so important? Pull over, just as if you were talking to someone during an emergency. Wow, was it that hard?
 
Changing lanes to pull over is dangerous :eek:

At the end of the day I just tend to think dangerous driving is dangerous driving. Either people are texting and driving at inopportune times because they're stupid and don't understand it's dangerous, or they are genuinely too selfish. I tend to think it's the former, in which case I'd like to see more education and training.

If you're almost getting run over by people, then they are driving dangerously and should have their licences removed for driving dangerously. I guess I just don't see why we have to make an exception for 1 piece of technology that is a distraction when the enemy isn't the technology, it's not understanding the risks of driving and how distractions affect that. Or alternatively it's being too selfish to care about the risks, either way.
 
It's all about justification. Drinking and driving has been so demonized—and not without reason—that assholes who text and drive are offended when they are lumped in with drunk drivers.
It's not that I'm offended or trying to justify texting over drink driving, the reason I refuse to drink and drive is I KNOW it affects my spatial and temporal awareness and I KNOW at any given moment it's hard for me categorize just how badly affected I am. So I have a blanket rule that I will not drink and drive. When it comes to texting, I am still fully aware of the road and can put the phone down at any time I desire, I don't just drift off in to lala land when I pick up my phone in the car which is what I think the truly dangerous part about driving and using a phone is, whether it's manually typing a text or even just talking, the dangerous part isn't the act of doing it, it's the distraction it causes (or the distraction you let it cause).
 
I can browse the net on my iPad while driving. These people just have crappy hand-eye coordination.
 
If you are driving drunk you are at least trying to drive, although you are doing so in an impaired condition that limits your reflexes

If you are texting (or other driving distractions) you are generally trying to do whatever is distracting you and not concentrating on driving ... I think one can surmise that this is significantly more dangerous (although neither should be performed) ;)
 
do phones have a speech to text feature?

i dont think mine does, seems like something that should be around.

A lot of them do, and they actually work pretty well.
Most android phones have it built in in one way or another.
The newer swype keyboards have forsaken the google text to speech for the dragon version, still seems to get the job done.
 
By that logic, it's okay to drink and drive now because "statistically" more people do it without incident than those who get into accidents. Wow @ some of the idiocy in this thread.

That's incorrect. Statistically there is a point with alcohol impairment where you are more likely to be in an accident than not be in an accident. That's not okay.
 
I've texted while driving since I was 17, and I'm 26 now. For the most part when I was on the job. 0 wrecks, 0 close calls.
 
I've texted while driving since I was 17, and I'm 26 now. For the most part when I was on the job. 0 wrecks, 0 close calls.

Same here... well, not for that long... but yea, 0 close calls or wrecks.

People will just say you've been lucky and it'll happen sooner or later or whatever... Guess that'll probably apply to everythign else, and they just don't want to admit it.

That said, texting and driving isn't very safe. It should be discouraged. I don't know how you do it, but I've seen people drive, look DOWN to text and drive. Idiots. At least make it so you can see the road, when you're looking down, you have no sight to see if you're about to hit someone or not. If you don't have that much common sense, just stop driving altogether.
 
I've texted while driving since I was 17, and I'm 26 now. For the most part when I was on the job. 0 wrecks, 0 close calls.

You can also put one bullet in a revolver, spin the chamber, place barrel to your temple and pull the trigger. You might even be able to do that for 9 years...it only takes once.
 
You can also put one bullet in a revolver, spin the chamber, place barrel to your temple and pull the trigger. You might even be able to do that for 9 years...it only takes once.

Ok, you do that once a day, I'll drive and text once a day, lets see who survives the longest :p

Your example is just hyperbole as if you did that every day for one year, your chances of surviving it are 0.000000000000000000000000000001256. I think I'll take my odds texting over that ;)
 
Coworker got splattered by a teen texting and driving. Maybe you'll be lucky texting and driving but someone else won't be.
 
Coworker got splattered by a teen texting and driving. Maybe you'll be lucky texting and driving but someone else won't be.

It has nothing to do with luck and everything to do with whether you let the phone distract you dangerously. It sucks that your coworker got hit, but why are we blaming the phone when we should be blaming dangerous driving?

Using a phone while driving is nothing like Russian roulette, the latter is purely luck based, the former is entirely situational, it could be completely safe or completely dangerous depending on the situation and whether or not the driver lets it distract them to the point of ignoring the road.
 
Reckless and dangerous drivers will try to rationalize their near-criminal disregard for others' lives. There's really no reasoning with them, that's just how they are.
 
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