Florida Car Accident: Teenagers Admit to Texting Behind the Wheel

As a Fort Lauderdale Personal Injury Attorney who is concerned about the safety of his fellow Floridians, Joseph Lipsky sadly reports that a recent study in the Journal of Pediatrics, about ½ of all high school aged kids admitted to texting while operating a motor vehicle, a behavior which significantly increases the likelihood of being involved in a deadly Miami car accident. Sadly, those same drivers also admitted to other dangers activities, such as failing to use a seat belt.

The study was based upon answers from almost nine thousand young drivers. Interestingly, older pupils admitted to texting and driving more frequently than younger students. Also, girls admitted to texting less frequently than boys.

Considering looking away from the roadway for a brief time is all it takes for a car accident to happen, texting while driving is an ever increasing problem. As such, parents and teachers should make a concerted effort to continually educate students about the dangers of distracted driving, which also includes other activities such as horse playing with friends in a moving vehicle. According to the United States Centers for Disease Control, many high school aged drivers feel like nothing bad can happen to them, they often ignore known dangers.

Because young drivers are the most inexperienced ones on the road, their distracted driving behavior tends to result in some of the most deadly car accidents. And, even though almost all teenage drivers admitted to being aware of the deadly consequences of texting while driving, partly because they see their parents also exhibiting such dangerous behind the wheel behavior, they often ignore the known danger.

We could not agree more with the idea that “it can wait,” meaning don’t look at your phone until you are stopped in a safe location. As we tell all of our Miami personal injury clients, using a smart phone while driving is really dumb.