Distracted parents driving teens to texting
May 10, 2010
Teenagers tend to follow their parents’ lead when it comes to driving … and texting?
NPR’s “Morning Edition” just did a segment on teens, texting and distracted driving, citing anecdotal evidence that youth who see their parents engaged in dangerous behaviors while behind the wheel see that as a green light to do the same.
One teen told NPR: “If a parent is always on their cell phone, the teen’s like, oh, it’s fine. My parents do it all the time. And if their parents haven’t crashed, then it’s kind of like, okay. It’s not going to happen.”
Amanda Lenhart of the Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project surveyed 800 teens and their parents about text messagng behind the wheel.
“(Teens) would tell stories about their parents’ texting with the phone while trying to drive with their knees,” Lenhart said on the radio feature. “They would talk about other ways in which parents were distracted behind the wheel, including using GPS or trying to use a walkie-talkie function on a phone, or make calls.”
And some of those kids say they’re downright scared of riding with their distracted parents, the NPR feature said.
Lenhart’s study “Teens and Mobile Phones” (April 20) found that daily text messaging among U.S. teens soared in a recent 18-month period, from 38% to 54%. Older teenage girls were the busiest texters, the Pew study found, sending an average of 100 messages a day.
One in three teens admitted to texting while driving, while 52% of teens who have cell phones said they had talked while behind the wheel.
Lynn Neary’s radio report was part of the “Today in Your Health” series.
Listen to the NPR report on teens, parents and texting.
Read the “Working to Stop Teens Texting Behind the Wheel” transcript.
When legislators attack (texting bills)
April 27, 2010
Two lawmakers have dug in their heels on texting while driving legislation, effectively killing texting bills in Florida and Alabama.
In Florida, the chairwoman of the House Finance and Tax Council says the primary bill that would ban texting and driving is “intellectually dishonest.” She refuses to allow a vote on its merits.
Rep. Ellyn Bogdanoff, R-Fort Lauderdale, says HB 41 is “not stalled. It’s dead.” (HB 41 is the companion to SB 448, which is moving ahead in the Senate.)
Bogdanoff’s beef seems to be that the bill ban behaviors that she says are already covered under state careless driving laws. Like many opponents of distracted driving legislation, she lays on the smoke by calling for a bill that covers less dangerous activities like putting on makeup — a bill that could never pass.
“Never mind the fact that more than a dozen bills on the topic were offered during this session, or that Gov. Charlie Crist was poised to sign a texting ban,” the Sunshine State News wrote in blasting Bogdanoff.
Bogdanoff, pictured at left, is an attorney. She admits to texting behind the wheel and notes that we are a “multitasking society now.” You can email Bogdanoff at ellyn.bogdanoff@myfloridahouse.gov
Rep. Doug Holder, R-Sarasota, a coauthor of the bill, told the St. Petersburg Times: “What can you do when someone just locks down and says, ‘I am not going to move forward,’ which she clearly has done?”
“What happened in Florida is just appalling to me,” said Jennifer Smith, the president of the survivors advocacy group FocusDriven.
It gets worse.
In Alabama, hopes for a text messaging while driving ban were crushed when a band of lawyers serving in the Senate insisted on inserting language that favors plaintiffs in crashes linked to texting.
Sen. Roger Bedford, D-Russellville, was the ringleader — an attorney, of course. He is a key player on the Senate Judiciary Committee and had support of its chairman — another attorney.
An insurance company objected to the lawyers’ provision, which presumed negligence on the part of a text-messaging driver in a crash. (More lawsuits meaning more attorney fees.) The collision of these self-servers brought the distracted driving plan to a halt as time ran out on the legislative session.
The bill, HB 35, had easily won approval in the state House and had broad support in the Alabama Legislature.
Days after the bill died, the Huntsville Times editorialized: “Opponents of this ban should be ashamed of themselves for killing this life-saving bill. … Bedford, Alfa (the insurance group) and whoever else torpedoed the text ban law are wrong. … (Their) excuses, frankly, don’t make sense.”
Feel like dropping Bedford an email? — senbedford@aol.com
Rep. Jim McClendon, R-Springville, says he’ll be back with the legislation in 2011.
Far from distracted in Southern California
March 28, 2010
Out here in Calfornia, it’s hard to remember how it was. Back in the bad old days, before the state banned the use of handheld cell phones while driving.
Sure you see the occasional fool holding a mobile phone to his ear, but for the most part people here have accepted that phone calls can wait until the drive’s over. Too bad we can’t quantify the quite apparent but subjective truth that the freeways are better and safer with the cell phone and text messaging bans.
It was gratifying, then, to read this bit of confirmation in a letter to the editor of the Baltimore Sun:
I just returned from a week’s vacation in southern California, and I was amazed that during my many trips on I-5 and I-405 that I did not see one person holding a cell phone while driving. … Also, I did not see cars wandering from one lane to another, cars going to slow on the interstate, and no accidents. Surprisingly, California drivers were attentive (even though they drive very fast) to what other cars were doing around them.
Thanks, Ron Wirsing. You’re welcome in our Golden State anytime.
Your texting & driving rights, defended by patriots
March 3, 2010
Strangest beginning to a news story we’ve seen in a while:
“PHOENIX — Arizona drivers’ right to compose and send text messages from behind the wheel of a moving vehicle has successfully been defended.”
This from a report on the defeat of a distracted driving bill, written by Howard Fischer Capitol Media Services. The headline in the Arizona Star noted that the bill “was sent packing.”
Guess the Arizona cops would have to pry the text messaging devices from freedom lovers’ cold dead hands.
A distinct possibility, if you think about it.
After a crash and ‘epiphany,’ Ky. rep votes yes
February 5, 2010
Last week, State Rep. Keith Hall of Kentucky turned thumbs down on a plan to ban text messaging while driving. He voted against HB 43 in the House Transportation Committee.
The measure succeeded, though, and went before the full House on Feb. 4. This time, Hall voted yes with the zeal of a recent convert.
“I’ve had a change of heart,” he told the House.
That’s because the night before the vote, his wife reportedly reached for her ringing cell phone and plowed into another vehicle.
“I heard the sirens go off, and my cell phone rang and they said, ‘Your wife has just had a serious traffic accident,’ he told fellow legislators during debate.
“That’ll give you an epiphany,” he said. “That’ll give you a wake-up call.”
Kentucky’s distracted driving bill HB 43, which also prevents teens from using cell phones while driving, cleared the chamber in an 80-16 vote.
People frustrated with legislative resistance to cell phone and texting legislation sometimes wonder if distracted driving has to affect lawmakers personally before they’ll vote yes.
Sometimes, yes.