More than half of parents say they text while driving

More than half of U.S. parents believeit's unsafe to text while driving, but most of them do itanyway, a new survey suggests.

"I think many people believe that texting and driving isunsafe, but also have gotten away with reading and/or writingtexts at some point, reinforcing a false sense of safety," saidsenior study author Dr. Regan Bergmark of Brigham and Women'sHospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston.

Indeed, 52 per cent of millennial parents (22 to 37 yearsold) and 58 per cent of older parents said they thought it was"never" safe to text and drive, researchers report in JAMAPediatrics.

But almost two-thirds of parents have read texts whiledriving, and more than half of them have also written texts, thesurvey of 435 parents in 45 U.S. states found.

Millennials a generation that includes many digitalnatives who grew up with smartphones were more apt to have avariety of other dangerous habits while driving, like usingemail, checking email, and speeding, than older parents, thesurvey also found.

"The problem with smartphones is that they have become anunavoidable part of daily life for most people," Bergmark saidby email.

"Many people are expected to be reachable by phone or emailimmediately, to be reachable for their children or work,"Bergmark added. "Being a responsible adult therefore often meansalways being reachable yet we also know that while driving,being reachable carries with it the risk of a crash."

More car crashes by younger drivers

About 16 per cent of millennial parents and 10 per cent ofolder parents in the survey said they had been in at least onecrash in the previous year.

Compared to people who didn't experience a crash, those whodid were much more likely to have a variety of unsafe drivinghabits like speeding, texting, emailing, and doing other thingson their phones, the survey found.

Roughly three in four parents said they didn't recall theirchild's pediatrician speaking to them about distracted drivingor the dangers of texting while driving.

And only about one in four millennials and about one in sixolder parents had used apps or cell phone features aimed atcutting back on distracted driving.

The study wasn't a controlled experiment designed to provewhether or how texting or other activities might cause crashesor if any specific interventions might help reduce this risk.

"In general, it is never safe to use a smartphone whiledriving," said Despina Stavrinos, director of the TranslationalResearch for Injury Prevention (TRIP) Laboratory at theUniversity of Alabama at Birmingham.

"There are a number of apps that can help to limitdistracted driving, by disabling cell phone features when thevehicle is in motion," Stavrinos, who wasn't involved in thestudy, said by email. "The simplest thing to do is to put thephone out of sight and out of reach to reduce the temptation todrive distracted."

Smartphones, however, are hardly the only dangerous sourceof distraction, Stavrinos said.

"Distractions are tasks that require a driver to takehis/her eyes off the road, hands off the steering wheel, andmind off of the road," Stavrinos added. "When tasks require allthree of those domains (visual, manual, cognitive) they areconsidered to be a triple threat to safety."