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Adults Text While Driving Just as Much as Teens

by Warren Riddle on June 21, 2010 at 09:25 AM

texting while driving
Adults frequently employ heavy-handed tactics to combat teen texting and driving, but impudent kids remain unfazed by gory films and harsh laws that specifically apply to minors. According to media portrayals, teens seem determined to endanger everyone on the road. But, before adults implement more restrictions or disseminate further propaganda, society's elders may need to cast a long, hard look in the rear-view mirror.

According to the Pew Research Center, a new study -- which will inevitably inspire a stream of "jump off a bridge" lectures -- indicates that "Adults are just as likely as teens to have texted while driving." Even more embarrassing for the patronizing parents and policy makers, the study concludes that adult drivers simultaneously chat on their cells dramatically more often than younger motorists. Of adults who text (at any time), 47-percent admit to reading or sending messages while behind the wheel, compared to 34-percent of 16- and 17-year-old texters.

The hypocrisy only worsens with talking and driving, as careless and garrulous adults alarmingly out-talk teens 75-percent to 52-percent. Gabby parents also shockingly outnumber childless adults 82-percent to 72-percent. Aged drivers may profess that wisdom gained from experience affords them vehicular cell phone leniency, but the survey numbers demonstrate otherwise. Forty-percent of teens admit to feeling endangered by texting drivers, compared to 44-percent of adult respondents. Hey, Joel McHale: Do those Thumb Socks come in adult sizes? [From: The Pew Research Center, via: Ars Technica]

Tags: cellphones, PewResearchCenter, research, smartphones, study, texting, texting while driving, TextingWhileDriving, twd

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