A new study showed some surprising results about who is texting behind the wheel. Although most focus has been on preventing teen texting while driving, a survey released this week showed more adults than teen admit to texting behind the wheel.
According to the results of a recent survey conducted by AT&T and published in USA Today, 49 percent of adult drivers admitted to texting behind the wheel while 43 percent of teen drivers admitted the same. The survey also showed that three years ago, 60 percent of adult drivers said they never texted while driving and 98 percent of them admitted they knew the practice was unsafe.
The survey, which was conducted online, sampled more than 1,000 commuters aged 18 and older with cell phones. The teen data was taken from a survey in April 2012 of 1,200 teen drivers 15-19 who had a driver’s license or learner’s permit as well as a cell phone.
This is despite the fact 39 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands ban text messaging for all drivers and an additional six states ban text messaging by novice drivers.
Ten states and the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands prohibit all drivers from using handheld cell phones at all while driving and in eight of those states all laws are a primary enforcement, meaning an officer can cite a driver just for using a phone with no other traffic violations.
This survey follows another study by the Centers for Disease Control showing 31 percent of drivers in the United States reported texting or emailing while driving.
If you have suffered injuries in any type of motor vehicle accident involving a distracted driver, you may want to speak to an experienced Wisconsin personal injury lawyer today. Call for your free, initial consultation.
