Forty-three percent of teenagers say they text while driving, with males and older teens doing it more often than females and younger teenagers, Alexandra Bailin, from Cohen Children’s Medical Center of New York explained in a presentation at the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) annual meeting in Washington, DC. yesterday.

Bailin added that teenagers receive literally hundreds of text message each day. Unfortunately, there is one important message they are not getting – “Do not text and drive”.

In a survey of high school students carried out in 2011, nearly 43% admitted to texting while driving at least on one occasion during the previous thirty days.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood says texting while driving is a “national epidemic”.

According to CBS news, the sheer volume of teen texting on American roads has led to proposals for software to be installed in cars that can disable texting.

More teenagers die in motor vehicle accidents than any other cause, Bailin informed. Using a cellphone while behind the wheel increases the risk of accidents in this age group considerably.

In fact, texting while driving raises the risk of being involved in a car crash 23 times. Some believe that texting while driving is more dangerous than driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

Bailin said:

“Although teens may be developmentally predisposed to engage in risk-taking behavior, reducing the prevalence of texting while driving is an obvious and important way to ensure the health and safety of teen drivers, their passengers and the surrounding public.”

Bailin and team set out to determine how common texting while driving is among teenagers. They gathered and examined data from the 2011 Youth Risk Behavior Survey, which included information on 7,833 high school students who were old enough to drive in their state.

The survey is conducted by the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) once every two years, and checks for six kinds of health-risk behaviors known to contribute to mortality, disability and social problems among Americans youths. The 2011 survey included a question regarding texting for the first time, and asked “During the past 30 days, on how many days did you text or e-mail while driving a car or other vehicle?”

Bailin and colleagues wanted to find out whether any other high-risk behaviors were linked to texting while behind the wheel, and also whether state laws banning texting while driving made any difference.

Below are some highlighted data presented by Bailin on the percentage of youths texting at least once within the previous thirty days:

  • 46% of males
  • 40% of females
  • 52% of over 18s
  • 46% of 17-year olds
  • 33% of 16 year-olds
  • 26% of 15-year olds

Teenagers who admitted to texting within the previous 30 days were more likely to have driven under the influence of alcohol, have had unprotected sex and used an indoor tanning device.

Bailin said “By identifying associated high-risk behaviors such as these. It is our hope that we can develop more effective mechanisms to reduce texting while driving.”

It appears that state laws banning texting while driving are not having enough of an impact. 39% of teenagers texted while driving in states forbidding the action, compared to 44% in other states – not a statistically significant difference, Bailin added.

Senior researcher, Andrew Adesman, MD, FAAP, chief of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics at Cohen Children’s Medical Center of New York, said:

“Although texting while driving was slightly less common in states that prohibit it, the reality is that millions of teens text while driving.”

“Regrettably, our analysis suggests that state laws do not significantly reduce teen texting while driving.

Adesman concluded:

“Technological solutions will likely need to be developed to significantly reduce the frequency of texting while driving. When it comes to teen texting while driving, phones will have to get smarter if they are to protect teens (and others) from doing dumb things.”

The study received no outside funding.

CBS News Report on Teen Texting While Driving

A study carried out by Liberty Mutual and Students Against Destructive Decisions found that 1 in every 4 American teens drives under the influence of alcohol, marijuana or some other drug.

What the authors found particularly worrying was that 75% those surveyed believed that driving under the influence did not affect their safety – many even thought it improved their driving.

From January 1st to June 30th 2012 there were 19% more teenage driver deaths compared to the same period the year before on American roads.

Written by Christian Nordqvist