By: Russell Keener  —  February 11, 2011
 

Accord­ing to a Texas Trans­porta­tion Insti­tute report, from 1999 to 2008 there has been a 10% increase in the pro­por­tion of deadly night­time traf­fic crashes involv­ing US teen dri­vers. This increase can be largely attrib­uted to cell phone use and text mes­sag­ing that, com­bined with the risks already posed by dri­ving in the dark, can cre­ate “a per­fect storm,” says Senior Research Spe­cial­ist Bernie Fette.

Granted, dis­tracted dri­ving, poor vis­i­bil­ity, and slower responses due to fatigue can neg­a­tively impact dri­vers of any age group regard­less of the time of day or night. How­ever, add to these haz­ards the fact that teen dri­vers are less expe­ri­enced, eas­ily dis­tracted to begin with, and not as skilled as their more expe­ri­enced adult coun­ter­parts when it comes to avoid­ing becom­ing involved in a car crash, and its easy to under­stand why teenagers’ car crash fatal­ity risk at night has gone up.

Cur­rently, in Geor­gia using cell phones while dri­ving and text mes­sag­ing and not banned. This means that unlike in a num­ber of other US states, where new dri­vers (if not all motorists) are not allowed to talk on the phone and drive at the same time, even the most inex­pe­ri­enced dri­vers are allowed to text/talk on the phone and drive here. This makes them a dan­ger not only to them­selves but to oth­ers.
It doesn’t help that, per a 2009 study from the Pew Research Cen­ter, cell phone use among teenagers has increased 58% since 2004. 52% of teens admit­ted to talk­ing on the phone and dri­ving at the same time. 34% said they’ve texted while dri­ving. Also, Fette notes that because today’s teens grew up talk­ing on the cell phone and tex­ting, they wrongly believe that they are “experts” and can eas­ily talk/text and drive at the same time.

Many teens can’t resist the urge to text. Accord­ing to NPR, US Trans­porta­tion Sec­re­tary Ray LaHood con­sid­ers the habit of tex­ting while dri­ving to be an addiction.

Geor­gia Cell Phone Acci­dents
Talk­ing on a cell phone takes the motorist’s mind on the road, and tex­ting requires that a dri­ver take at least one (if not both) hands off the steer­ing wheel. Both activ­i­ties can make it hard for the dri­ver to pay atten­tion or react quickly dur­ing an emer­gency poten­tially result­ing in injury or death of a pas­sen­ger, pedes­trian or another vehi­cle in a Geor­gia car wreck.