Tuesday, June 22, 2010

It is not just teenagers

In a post below, I relate Dr. Amy Ship's recommendation to her patients and to her colleagues that they focus seriously on the dangers of cell phone use while driving. Now comes this study by the Pew Research Center that blows apart the myth that it is mainly teenagers who are texting while driving:

One in four (27%) American adults say they have texted while driving, the same proportion as the number of driving age teens (26%) who say they have texted 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.


OMG. What a silly and terrible way to hurt someone or be hurt.

4 comments:

e-Patient Dave said...

1. For what it's worth, since our exchange here months ago, I've completely stopped.

I do look & reply if I'm stopped at a stoplight, but that's all. I know that's not as pure as you completely turning the thing off - I'm not justifying, just being open / transparent.

2. Let's remember that "texting" isn't just SMS messages: emails count too. (I once heard a Blackberry user comment that he doesn't do texting...)

p.s. Thanks for offering email subscriptions via FeedBurner.

Anonymous said...

What should I do if my taxicab driver starts to talk on a cell phone? Is it ok to ask him to stop?

Anonymous said...

Anon 1:43,

I thank that's reasonable...after all his job is to get you where you want to go, not talk on the phone.

Bill

~Mary said...

I've rarely seen a teen texting-it's always the adults that are texting or talking on the phone causing the traffic tie ups.