Texting while Driving: A National Epidemic

According to a new study, forty-three per cent of US high school students have admitted to texting while driving. More than four in 10 who admitted to texting while drive were high school students of driving age; they reported texting while driving at least once in the past 30 days. The study is presented at the Pediatric Academic Societies' (PAS) annual meeting in Washington.

The principal investigator, a research assistant at Cohen Children's Medical Center of New York, Alexandra Bailin, called it a 'national epidemic'. The leading cause of death among teenagers in the US is motor vehicle accidents and using a phone while driving increases the risk of accidents by manifolds. He added that texting while driving is more dangerous than driving while intoxicated, as the act raises the risk of a crash by 23 times.

The researchers analysed data from the 2011 Youth Risk Behaviour Survey of 7,833 high school students who had the driving licence. The survey found that males were more likely to text while driving than females, 46 per cent and 40 per cent respectively.

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