Negligent Teen Driving Caused by Texting While Driving

Teen drivers often multi-task while driving. Teen drivers are multi-tasking by continuing to text or electronically communicate while driving. Distracted driving creates hazards on the roadways that cause injuries to drivers and others.

One of the main distractions for teen drivers is texting while driving. Distracted drivers are not focused on driving and drive blind by when they look away from the road. Studies show texting while driving causes a driver to be distracted for approximately five seconds, which means the driver is driving blind for approximately the equivalent of the length of a football field. While many teen drivers understand the dangers that come from distracted driving, many continue to text while driving. Many teens claim to text while driving or being a passenger in a vehicle when the driver is texting.

Parents Electronically Monitor Teen Driving Behavior to Increase Safety

Distracted teen driving is a social concern and the potential for injury from negligent driving created programs to improve teen driving. A program called Tell the Parents was started by mom who was cut off by teen driver who was texting. The potential accident promoted the program that places a bumper sticker with a reference number on cars and sends a report of the negligent driving to the teen driver's parents. Parents can also install a black box to track driving behaviors of a vehicle, which alerts the driver of their behavior and creates a record for parents.

Distracted driving has become a national concern of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which created public service announcements to raise awareness of the potential from injury caused by distracted driving. The goal of the public service announcements is to spread the message that texting while driving is not worth the risk of injury that can occur from the distracted driving.