Watching sitcoms from the 1980’s and 90’s depicts teenagers as always tying up the phone lines with the latest high school gossip. Now in the age of cell phones this has all changed and texting is now the main channel of communication among the younger generation. In fact, I bet the use of a land line is extremely rare among this age group and if you asked how often they picked up a common house phone you would be scoffed at. While the frequent use of the home phone was an irritation among parents – the onset of cell phones triggers a great safety concern, particularly when teens are at the driving age. In my profession as a Seattle personal injury attorney and King County car crash lawyer I have seen far too many times the results of people distracted by a cell phone while driving. In an article I recently wrote, “Teens and Distracted Driving: The Danger Doesn’t Stop Them” I touch on this subject and reveal a current survey showing that 9 out of 10 teens know the dangers of distracted driving, but still partake in this risky behavior.

If teens know the dangers of distracted driving and the grave consequences that can result such as severe auto accidents, serious injury and even death and still partake in this behavior…how can we help them be safe drivers short of banning them from taking the wheel at all?

For starters, check out the website: Teens Against Distracted Driving. This site is full of information for teenagers on the dangers of distracted driving. With over 500,000 people suffering from injury due to distracted driving accidents and over 6,000 wrongful deaths contributed to this dangerous habit these statistics and the stories behind them may help your teen. Teens can also take the pledge to not drive distracted at the site and will receive a TADD bracelet for their pledge.

Another thing you can do to help solve this problem is simply supporting the new anti-cell phone laws and keep pushing for increased legislation and education throughout the United States. On September 21st transportation secretary, Raymond LaHood, has scheduled a second summit targeting distracted driving. The first summit, held last year ended with a considerable amount of positive action against distracted driving both on the national and state levels and I have great hopes that the second summit will meet with an even more favorable outcome.

With accident reports popping up more and more frequently of pedestrians falling into man holes, tripping over curbs, running into poles, fences and crashing into other pedestrians and even worse- walking into moving traffic -texting is definitely not a safe activity while driving a car. But through awareness and proactive legislation we can help lessen the occurrence of distracted driving and increase highway safety.

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